Building Opportunities in Europe

This study conducted for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a mapping exercise of the landscape of European organisations that have existing or potential involvement in activities addressing undernutrition in low and middle income countries. It highlights potential opportunities to scale investments and activities. Firstly, the study finds that donors are making nutrition a strategic priority. The European Commission represents a significant source of funding and has been increasingly operational in its nutrition programming across development priorities, although there remains a need to increase and protect these investments. In general, there is still a need for stronger leadership and coordination across multilateral organisations. Secondly, NGOs are developing increased capacity for nutrition advocacy. NGOs have strong commitment to addressing undernutrition and bring valuable technical expertise and field knowledge into informing evidence-based policies at both national and international levels. However NGOs can be constrained by funding parameters. Thirdly, private sector industry is increasingly interested in its role in addressing undernutrition and there are opportunities to engage industry partners across the food value chain. However, there remains a need to clarify goals and understanding of where the private sector can add value and also a need for robust evaluation of health and nutrition impacts of private sector initiatives. Fourthly, private funders for nutrition in Europe are few. Funders are generally inhibited by a perceived complexity of the nutrition problem and a lack of understanding of how and where their funds may achieve impact. Finally, an analysis of the research findings highlights several opportunities for the nutrition community to prioritise in efforts to scale resources and attention to nutrition.

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medecine et CCS Consulting - August 2011