The Road to Ending Malnutrition: How the Paris N4G Summit Sparked a Global Call to Action

The Paris Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit brought global leaders and organizations together in a unified call to put nutrition at the center of development. Far from a siloed issue, the Summit reaffirmed that nutrition is a cross-cutting, urgent challenge that touches health, equity, education, climate, and resilience. CGIAR stands among those answering the call, turning science into action for a healthier, more sustainable future. 

The global malnutrition crisis 

Around the world, billions of people face a silent but devastating crisis: malnutrition. From undernourished communities and stunted children – that is, children with low height-for-age whose growth or development is impaired by poor nutrition, repeated infection, or inadequate psychosocial stimulation – to the rising prevalence of overweight, obesity and diet-related diseases, poor nutrition is taking a toll on lives, livelihoods, and the future of our planet. 

UN data shows that more than 200 million children are experiencing some form of malnutrition. And many countries now face the double burden of undernutrition alongside rapidly increasing rates of overweight/obesity and non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers). This is more than a health issue – it’s a major obstacle to human and economic development, social equality, and sustainable progress. 

Poor-quality diets are at the root of malnutrition and health loss. While healthy diets should include sufficient fruits, vegetables, and other nutrient-rich foods, nearly 3 billion people – a third of the global population – cannot afford them. In many regions, such foods are simply not available or accessible due to cost or cultural factors. 

But there is hope. Evidence shows that sustainable, healthy diets can reduce deaths from non-communicable diseases by up to 20%. With the right investments, partnerships, and long-term strategies, we can address all forms of malnutrition. 

At CGIAR, we’re putting science to work to transform food, land, and water systems so that sustainable, healthy diets are affordable and within reach for everyone, from consumers to smallholder producers, especially the most vulnerable. That’s why we are proud to reaffirm our dedication to the global nutrition agenda, including the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, by making a political pledge to scale high-impact strategies that embed dietary and nutritional considerations into various sectors and programs. 

Our new Better Diets and Nutrition (BDN) Program, part of our new and most ambitious to date Research Agenda, is at the heart of this commitment. This program recognizes that improving diets requires more than just boosting food supply; it calls for a systems-level approach—one that also addresses consumer behavior, food environments, and the structural drivers of poor diets and nutrition. It therefore aligns food systems policies with interventions in health, education, water, sanitation, and social protection, while ensuring that these interventions support the sustainability and ecosystem diversity of our food, land, and water systems.

Science, partnerships, and the path forward 

Under the BDN Program, by 2030, CGIAR will deliver 25 evidence-based solutions aimed at improving the availability, accessibility, affordability, and desirability of sustainable, healthy diets and the agency to consume these for populations in low- and middle-income countries. These solutions will be rolled out across multiple regions, with a special focus on women and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and Southeastern Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. 

But CGIAR has long been at work in this area. From developing improved vegetable varieties to enhancing the appeal and accessibility of nutrient-dense crops, CGIAR’s research is already helping people eat better in real-world settings.  

The impact is tangible: to date, CGIAR-developed food crop technologies have been adopted across more than 220 million hectares of land in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa and South Asia, our biofortified crops are helping reduce child mortality. And in Ethiopia, we helped develop the country’s first Food-Based Dietary Guidelines, shaping future national nutrition strategies. 

The case for more and better evidence on Nutrition

Despite notable progress, all organizations, private and public, joining forces in the efforts to end malnutrition and improve the quality of diets, the quantity and quality of data currently available on nutrition is still quite deficient.  

In many places, we simply don’t know enough about what people eat, what nutrients they’re missing, or why malnutrition keeps happening. A new global measure called Minimum Dietary Diversity is helping change that by focusing attention on diet quality, not just calories. But to truly fix the problem, we need to scale up local solutions and invest in research that tells us what works, where, and why. CGIAR has been a global leader in generating this kind of science—from major reports like those in the Lancet Series to tools to collect and analyse data on diets and food environments. 

Second, we need to do more with the data we already have. Right now, useful insights are stuck in outdated systems that are hard to access or too slow to inform decisions. It shouldn’t take 20 years for good science to influence policy, as it did with pregnancy supplements. That’s why CGIAR is helping to build smarter, faster, and more inclusive data tools, even in fragile areas, using technologies like AI to support local action. 

Third, we need to strengthen the systems that turn knowledge into impact. Many governments still lack the infrastructure or trained teams to act on data. CGIAR is working to change that, investing in partnerships and platforms that help countries use data wisely, fairly, and effectively. 

GIAR has long been at the forefront of building the global evidence base on diets and nutrition, shaping both science and policy over decades.  

For example, our scientists contributed foundational evidence to The Lancet’s series on maternal and child nutrition, a collection of influential studies that emphasized the importance of proper nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood. This work significantly informed the 1000 Days Agenda, which focuses on the critical window from a child’s conception to their second birthday, a period vital for preventing malnutrition and ensuring healthy development. The research led to substantial financial commitments from governments and organizations aimed at improving health and social protection.  

Additionally, CGIAR’s impact extends to global initiatives like the EAT-Lancet Commission, which reframed food systems by highlighting how consumer food choices affect not only nutrition but also climate and health outcomes. This work brought the sustainability of diets to the forefront of global food system transformation efforts 

Our new Better Diets and Nutrition (BDN) Program continues this legacy, but with a next-generation, food systems lens. To help bridge diet data gaps, the BDN Program will also compile essential diet-related data from our research and interventions and make them available to all relevant stakeholders, from smallholder farmers and local governments to national and global institutions.  

This inclusive way of working reflects CGIAR’s model for impact: partnering strategically to co-develop transformative, evidence-based solutions. By combining the strengths of governments, the private sector, civil society, and research institutions, CGIAR turns science into real-world change.  

Building a wider evidence base helps low- and middle-income countries diagnose diet and nutrition challenges, test and scale solutions, track progress, and ultimately shape national nutrition plans. Good examples of impactful, data-driven partnerships are the Periodic Table of Food – a global initiative that developed standardized food composition data – and the work of the National Food System Convenors in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam on numerous capacity sharing and knowledge exchange activities that support the design and implementation of national food systems action plans that target specifically smallholder farmers, women, and youth. 

These efforts require significant and sustained investment. Agricultural research and development—particularly in resilient, diet and nutrition-focused food systems—is still underfunded. This needs to change. 

Investing in food systems research is not just a moral imperative; it’s an economic one. CGIAR’s research offers a proven return of 10-to-1, making a compelling case for governments, donors, and the private sector to step up and fund what works. 

Furthermore, the costs of delaying action are staggering. While truly transformative policies may cost billions of USD, the costs of failing to address malnutrition will rapidly surpass that in the years to come in terms of healthcare, lost productivity, and stunted development. 

Conclusion 

As we look ahead, it is clear that the fight against malnutrition must take a more prominent place on the global policy agenda. The final declaration of the Paris N4G Summit, supported by major new political and financial commitments, emphasizes that true progress will require prevention-focused approaches, widespread education, and bold use of emerging technologies, as well a whole-of-society effort: governments, the private sector, civil society, and research institutions must unite around a shared vision.  

With many engagements already registered, these pledges must now be translated into action, especially for the most vulnerable. This is a long-term pledge: to the future of global nutrition, to the next generation, and to the health of the planet we all share.  

The challenge is enormous, but so is our collective opportunity to drive lasting, transformative change. As always, CGIAR stands ready to act and partner to turn political will into measurable impact and drive the transformation needed to ensure healthy diets for good nutrition for all. 

Authors: Purnima Menon and Inge Brouwer