The International Development Committee (IDC) conducted an inquiry into the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and wider UK Government’s work on hunger and nutrition around the world and work towards achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 in line with SDG2. It examined the impact on this work of significant ongoing cuts to the UK aid budget.
The Committee examined the effectiveness of the Government’s hunger and nutrition interventions, including calorie and nutritional value; whether it is targeting the right regions and groups of people and its humanitarian or short-term interventions as well as medium and long-term hunger and nutrition interventions.
The inquiry looked at the UK’s work on establishing food security including through improving sustainable food production and agricultural production in low-and-middle-income countries, factoring in the changes that will become increasingly necessary to improve climate resilience, increasing the genetic diversity of plant crops and supporting small-scale producers.
Summary of the report:
The world is off-track in achieving the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) on eradicating hunger. This is not simply a failure of funding, or unforeseen international events, it is also a failure of policy in terms of donor countries harmonising the various efforts that have an impact on this goal. Evidence showed an estimated 735 million people globally were undernourished in 2023, a 29% increase on 2017. In 2022, an estimated 45 million children under the age of five suffered from wasting,1 148 million had stunted growth and 37 million were overweight.
Making progress toward the eradicating hunger goal will require an integrated approach to addressing malnutrition and to strengthening food systems—food systems that are sustainable, resilient to conflict and climate shocks, and that are accessible to all.
Integrating SDG2 into broader development policy, and measuring progress towards it, is a challenge. Success requires a two-pronged approach: mainstreaming nutrition and food security as cross-cutting themes across programming and diplomatic action on the one hand; and delivery of highly focussed programming to address particular nutrition and food security-related issues on the other. It is especially important that the interactions between climate, gender, youth and disability with hunger are understood and reflected in programme design. There is evidence that the last Government understood these challenges, demonstrating an intention to harmonise the activities of the FCDO and other departments—an intention clearly shared by the new Government. However, the evidence suggests that there is still significant room for improvement when it comes to implementation.
With the department taking stock after a review of international development, and a new Government that has expressed a commitment to rebuilding the UK’s international development credentials, this is an opportune time to harmonise the Government’s offering across the multiple components of SDG2 and continue international leadership toward the goal. There is also an opportunity to ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to ensure funding toward this goal is predictable and long term—avoiding the damage caused by sudden funding cuts.
We therefore recommend a holistic, cross-Government, Zero Hunger strategic delivery framework that will: enable a locally led approach to policy and programming; prioritise learning across Government to ensure complementarity of policy and that ODA is prioritised toward what works; restore and consolidate the UK’s international leadership role in pursuing this goal; and draw on the UK’s innovation and expertise, including agricultural research. Innovative and proven approaches, such as cash transfers and the provision of nutritional supplements, should be part of these specific interventions. This integrated approach, which makes the most of every pound spent and every tool available, is even more important since the announcement of the reduction in ODA from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI. By concentrating on the contribution each of these priorities brings, while being adequately supported with appropriate funding and staffing, the Government can ensure it is doing all it can to have achieved SDG2 by 2030.
The FCDO, under this Government, has multiple opportunities to build on the leadership it demonstrated under the last. The last Government was a bold, influential and innovative leader on the international stage. It reached the target of 0.7% of GNI to Official Development Assistance, as well as championing initiatives such as Nutrition for Growth and the Action Review Panel on Child Wasting. However, much of this leadership was undermined by cuts to funding in 2021, and the failure to adequately resource FCDO specialist teams post the merger of Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development. This Government can continue to wield its convening capacity in support of the goal of eradicating hunger. It can also continue to lead by example with generous pledges toward addressing acute malnutrition as well as tackling the underlying causes.
The Government has an excellent opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to leadership on SDG2 by doing everything it can to ensure that the Nutrition for Growth summit is a success. We wait with anticipation for the announcements the Government intends to make at the summit regarding the integration of programming around this goal. Beyond this, there is scope for the Government to use its convening power to coordinate a series of international actions and milestones to harmonise the work of the various for a working on aspects of the Goal.