Nutrition interventions: Estimated costs versus donor disbursements (2015-2022)

The Global Investment Framework for Nutrition estimated the costs to scale up nutrition-specific interventions needed to achieve the World Health Assembly nutrition targets, outlining the role needed of both country governments and donors. This report presents data on donor disbursements to scale up priority nutrition interventions from 2015 to 2022, highlighting key trends, challenges, and opportunities in global nutrition financing. The key findings were as follows.

First, donor funding for WHA priority interventions such as stunting, wasting, anaemia, and exclusive breastfeeding has stagnated since 2020. This is despite there being an average annual increase of 5% between 2015 and 2022. In 2022, $1.6 billion was disbursed, but the plateau suggests a troubling new normal for global nutrition financing amidst growing needs, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

Second, the cumulative funding gap since 2015 reached $2.1 billion by 2022, with donors meeting only 81% of the funding needed for priority interventions in 2022 alone. The gap reflects a level of unmet need for life-saving nutrition interventions, particularly as global crises related to climate, food, and COVID-19 have increased demand.

Third, wasting treatment and above-service delivery categories, such as coordination, governance, capacity building, and research, had a significant increase in funding. Wasting funding grew by more than 10% annually from 2015, with a notable increase in development assistance in 2022 to $317 million.

Fourth, funding for anaemia, stunting, and exclusive breastfeeding has decreased since 2015, with aid for stunting dropping by over 25% between 2021 and 2022. This drop in funding was largely due to the conclusion of several multi-year programmes, particularly for supplementation efforts, emphasising the need for growing advocacy and evidence-generation efforts in these areas.

Fifth, this report highlights a shift in top donor contributions. The World Bank emerged as the top donor for these priority interventions, reflecting growing country demand for nutrition financing. However, several top donors, including the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada, decreased their funding in 2022. These decreases are likely to continue, given cuts in overall Official Development Assistance and the redirection of aid budgets to domestic refugee support.

The report calls for sustained and increased funding for global nutrition efforts, emphasising the importance of maintaining donor contributions to avoid further widening the funding gap. It also highlights the need for improved tracking of nutrition-sensitive investments, which are crucial alongside nutrition-specific investments for addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition. The upcoming Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris in 2025 presents an opportunity to urge for more sustained financing for global nutrition, especially as the need for implementation of effective nutrition interventions continues to grow. In conclusion, while there have been positive trends in certain funding aspects, the overall picture remains concerning, with significant funding gaps and declining support for critical nutrition interventions.