Companies are invited to join the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact in advance of a September 23rd nutrition event occurring alongside the UN General Assembly meetings.
The compact captures commitments made at a June 8th event hosted in London by the UK and Brazillian governments and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which aimed to reduce stunting and undernutrition globally. The event generated significant commitments from governments, civil society and business. New nutrition-specific commitments of USD $4.15 billion were secured, alongside an additional $19 billion to increase nutritional outcomes of programs in agriculture, social protection, water and hygiene.
In addition, 22 companies pledged to introduce nutrition policies and to improve maternal health. Collectively, these pledges will improve the productivity and health of over 927,000 employees in more than 80 countries. Sixteen businesses made additional commitments to scale-up efforts in biofortification (breeding crops to increase nutritional value) and to reduce the cost of locally-produced therapeutic foods, fortify staple foods with essential micronutrients and improve water quality, sanitation and hygiene.
The September meeting will provide an opportunity to announce new compact signatories and put nutrition firmly into the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda.
Businesses can join the compact by committing to introduce by 2016 a corporate nutrition policy for employees and to improve maternal policies—including support for breastfeeding mothers. Interested companies should contact at Unilever, which has joined the compact and is urging other companies to do so, and at the UK Department for International Development.
The Nutrition for Growth team is working in alliance with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network as the primary platform for business engagement. SUN consists of 41 developing country governments and networks of UN agencies, donors, civil society and businesses developing a multi-sectoral approach to scaling up nutrition.
Read more and access list of compact signatores.
Listen to speeches made at the Nutrition for Growth event.
More information about the SUN Business Network can be found here. For membership, please contact Jonathan Tench at