Nutrition efforts in Norwegian development cooperation

The world is facing major nutritional challenges, with millions of people suffering from starvation or malnutrition. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of people who are starving or have insufficient access to food. Children are especially affected by malnutrition: 149 million children under five are affected by stunting, and 49 million by wasting. Two billion children and adults are deficient in one or more micronutrients.

In parallel with this, obesity is a growing problem in all countries worldwide. Forty million children under the age of five are overweight and more than one in every eight adults in the world are obese. The result is a rapid increase in non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. The burden of these diseases is increasing especially rapidly in low- and middle-income countries.

Through increasing its nutrition efforts, Norway can help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to eradicate hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. Good nutrition is also important to achieve a number of other Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate poverty and ensure good health, good-quality education, gender equality, economic growth and peace. Norway should support governments, civil society, and national/local efforts that engage in nutrition-specific interventions to reduce all forms of malnutrition, as well as organisations and processes that promote nutritional sensitivity through all parts of the food system to ensure better access to varied, healthy and sustainable food for more people.