The World Food Prize is courting the private sector. What could go wrong?

The 2019 World Food Prize (WFP) has been awarded to the Dutch entrepreneur, Simon Groot of East West Seeds, a vegetable seed company that has boosted the fortunes of smallholder farmers. Published on 4 October 2019, this short Devex article by Andrew Green considers the risks of engaging with the private sector in food and nutrition security. Critics, who warn that the private sector will always prioritize profit over health, worry that the World Food Prize is leveraging private-sector influence to boost its role in addressing malnutrition. Their critique speaks to a larger tension within the global nutrition community about how, if at all, to engage the private sector.

Some of the prize's recent choices have frustrated critics, especially members of the food sovereignty movement, which prioritize food systems that are healthy and culturally appropriate, and not dictated by corporations or markets. With selections such as the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition's Lawrence Haddad last year and African Development Bank President Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina in 2017, critics say the prize seems to be validating a private sector role in the effort to improve global nutrition.

The solution to the WFP dilemma, eventually, might lie in pragmatic and realistic engagement with the private sector.