Nutrition and the Sustainable Development Goals: an opportunity for real progress

The article by Patrick Webb, published in SCN News No. 41 (pages 11-19),  argues that negotiations around new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a window of opportunity for the global community to make good on past commitments to tackle the world’s entrenched nutrition problems. Well-designed, well-funded actions at scale are essential to achieving sound nutrition for all in tandem with each of the individual SDGs. This paper summarizes the many pathways by which nutrition can play a role in achieving the SDGs, and how achieving the SDGs can also benefit nutrition. It argues that a more prominent role for nutrition is warranted, and that a minimum set of nutrition, dietary and policy commitment indicators must be included in the post-2015 agenda. In particular, the table on pages 17-18 demonstrates the contributions of nutrition to SDGs and the SDGs' contributions to nutrition.