UK aid, nutrition and the Nutrition for Growth summit 2025

On 27 to 28 March 2025 France will host the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G). The summit aims to close the global funding gap in nutrition funding, set and implement new national nutrition goals, and integrate nutrition efforts across health, agriculture, climate change and education.  

The World Bank estimates that, globally, annual spending on “discrete” nutrition interventions needs to rise from a current US$6.3 billion to US$19.3 billion from 2025 to 2034. The majority of funding need is in low and lower-middle income countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

This briefing provides information on nutrition globally, UK aid efforts and its effectiveness, and plans and commentary on the N4G summit in 2025.

What is the state of global nutrition?

UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 is to “create a world free from hunger” by 2030. Indicators for this measure include bringing down rates of undernourishment (not having enough to eat), food insecurity (not having regular access to adequate food) and rates of childhood stunting (being too short for their age) and wasting (having weight too low for their age).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation reported in 2024 the world “is still far off track” to achieve SDG 2, with a stalling of progress on rates of undernourishment since 2020 (present for an estimated 1 in 11 people globally, and 1 in 5 in Africa) and addressing moderate or severe food insecurity (affecting nearly 1 in 3 globally in 2023). Malnutrition, stunting and wasting rates have made progress, though remain off target for 2030.

How much UK aid is spent on nutrition?

There is no single data category for aid on nutrition, on which spending can occur across humanitarian, agricultural, health, education and other sectors. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) data shows £999 million of bilateral UK aid was spent on “basic nutrition” from 2009 to 2023. It has fallen from 2020, to £24 million in 2023. It peaked in 2017, at £146 million.

“Nutrition-sensitive aid”, which captures spending on a wide range of sectors with some link to nutrition has also fallen in recent years. In 2023, UK aid totalled £1,262 million, down from a peak of £2,719 in 2016.

The fall in spending has been greater than wider reductions in UK aid spending after the move to spend 0.5% of gross national income on aid from 2021. In 2021, the overall level of UK aid fell by 21%; however, nutrition-specific aid decreased by 61% and nutrition-sensitive aid by 54%.

What are the UK’s priorities?

The UK Government says it is committed to addressing food insecurity, malnutrition, and the global financing gap. It will not make a financial commitment at the N4G summit and future spending will be determined in the 2025 spending review and in later years. The government plans to integrate nutrition across its international development work. In 2024 the UK also joined the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty and announced £70 million of funding over 18 months to address food insecurity (among other commitments). The UK is also participating in a new joint UN initiative on the Prevention of Wasting, which was launched in March 2025.