African Development Bank, Big Win Philanthropy, Dangote Foundation launch ambitious plan to improve child nutrition, fight stunting

Working with Big Win Philanthropy and Aliko Dangote Foundation, the African Development Bank has unveiled a new Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Action Plan that aims at raising investments towards reducing stunting by 40% in African children aged under 5 by 2025.

Africa loses $25 billion per year in costs attributed to child morbidity and mortality, impaired cognitive, physical, and economic development caused by malnutrition. Yet these losses are almost entirely preventable.

The ambitious Action Plan is looking for additional support and commitments from governments for nutrition.

Jennifer Blanke, Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the African Development Bank, stressed the importance of engaging energetically and substantially with the private sector, “if we want to achieve long-lasting results.”

Through the Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Action Plan, the Bank commits to scale up the proportion of investments that are ‘nutrition-smart’ in agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene, social and health sectors.

“In terms of human development, nutrition is as important as investments in infrastructure and power in stimulating economic growth. Big Win Philanthropy is thrilled with President Adesina’s leadership in giving greater priority to nutrition and the wider human capital investment agenda,” said Jamie Cooper, Chair and President, Big Win Philanthropy.

Nutrition is inextricably linked to the Bank’s High 5 priorities: nutrition-smart investments could be catalytic for realizing equitable growth agenda.

The Plan will focus on integrating nutrition-smart interventions into projects in the Bank’s extensive agriculture pipeline. The Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy executes the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) goals of contributing to the elimination of extreme hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. In addition to improved productivity, the Action Plan looks into the potential to nourish Africa, by including commodity value chains that offer broad-based nutrition value, instead of just calories.

To realise its human and economic potential, Africa must invest in nutrition – particularly during the 1,000 days between conception and the age of two – as a crucial foundation for productivity later in life, said Oley Dibba-Wadda, the Bank’s Director Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department.

Original source: AfDB
Published on 4 December 2018