Malnutrition levels throughout the world remain at unacceptably high levels. Despite some progress the world is largely off-track for meeting global maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) targets. Estimates of the financial resources required to accelerate progress toward these targets are high and have even increased.

Official development assistance (ODA, also known as aid) for nutrition remains an essential resource in achieving short-, medium- and long-term outcomes in developing countries, though budgets face increasing pressures and demands from multiple fronts. The economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have put especial pressure on ODA budgets worldwide, with recovery to pre-pandemic levels expected only towards the end of the decade. Nevertheless, sources of nutrition financing, including ODA, require sustaining and scaling up. This is well recognised, and new, additional financial commitments were sought at the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, building on a legacy of prior commitments made at the 2013 London N4G Summit. The UK committed to integrate nutrition objectives across its programme portfolio (including in sectors such as health, humanitarian, women and girls, climate and economic development), to spend £1.5 billion on nutrition programmes between 2022 and 2030, and to adopt the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Nutrition Policy Marker at programme design stage.