How innovative actions can create opportunities to solve the global food and nutrition crisis

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Coordinator highlights a global malnutrition crisis driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has increased costs for food, fuel, and fertiliser. The author advocates for a shift from a narrow focus on caloric food security to a broader nutrition-based approach, promoting 'grow local, eat local' strategies and the use of indigenous crops to replace imported wheat. While member countries are implementing innovative budget reprioritisations and agricultural shifts, the author warns that economically fragile nations face increasing debt, necessitating urgent international support to ensure political stability and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

• The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a global food and nutrition crisis by increasing the costs and decreasing the availability of food, fuel, and fertiliser, which compounds the existing impacts of climate change, other conflicts, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Rising costs for fuel and fertiliser are expected to reduce agricultural production in the coming harvest, leading households to reduce meal frequency and diversity, which increases the risk of malnutrition for men, women, and children.
• Countries within the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement are adopting 'grow local, eat local' strategies to reduce dependence on imports, including the production of biofortified foods and the replacement of wheat with indigenous crops such as cassava, quinoa, fonio, gierst, spelt, and emmer.
• National budgets are being reprioritised to fund community-driven school feeding programmes, nutrition services for women and children under five, subsidies for nutritious food baskets, and financial support for small-scale farmers through credit and debt forgiveness.
• Economically fragile and indebted nations risk further debt and political instability, which could hinder national development and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, necessitating increased international financial and technical assistance.

APA

Verburg, G. (2022). How innovative actions can create opportunities to solve the global food and nutrition crisis. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/can-innovative-actions-ease-the-global-food-and-nutrition-crisis/

Chicago

Verburg, Gerda. How innovative actions can create opportunities to solve the global food and nutrition crisis. World Economic Forum, 2022. https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/can-innovative-actions-ease-the-global-food-and-nutrition-crisis/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Verburg |first1=Gerda |title=How innovative actions can create opportunities to solve the global food and nutrition crisis |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=7 September 2022 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/can-innovative-actions-ease-the-global-food-and-nutrition-crisis/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{verburg2022how, author = {Verburg, Gerda}, title = {{How innovative actions can create opportunities to solve the global food and nutrition crisis}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/can-innovative-actions-ease-the-global-food-and-nutrition-crisis/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }