South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge.
Although there is a strong evidence base on effective interventions to improve nutrition outcomes, evidence of their implementation and scale‑up in real‑world settings remains inconsistent. Success depends not only on having proven solutions but also on systems, leadership, sustainable financing, and accountability mechanisms to support widespread delivery.
As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development nears and as South Asia navigates the challenges of climate change, food system disruptions, and economic instability, the need for effective, scalable, and sustainable nutrition action has never been more urgent.
The French Society of Nutrition (SFN), the French Federation of Nutrition (FFN), the Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS), and the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS)—and under the high patronage of Mr. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic—is holding the 23rd International Congress of Nutrition, between 24 and 29 August 2025 at the Palais des Congrès, Pris, France.
GAIN is proud to join FAO and the UN Food System Coordination Hub to launch the Food Systems Transformation Accelerator during the side event "Food Systems Transformation: How and Why", held on July 29. The session featured opening remarks by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, strong ministerial engagement, and the support of key partners including the World Bank, IFAD and SUN.
Food system transformation (FST) is fundamental to human progress. Feeding and nourishing the world. Creating jobs and reducing poverty. Managing the environment. Avoiding catastrophic climate change. Building resilience to shocks. These are the building blocks of human and planetary wellbeing.
Since the lead-up to the UNFSS, we have been supporting countries to draw up pathways to better food systems, and to begin walking the talk. But many constraints still hinder progress, and reforms are sorely needed.
That’s why we have worked with governments to develop and implement a series of practical tools to strengthen policy decision making processes and capacities. These are tools created to give users a hand over major, common barriers. They are also designed to align with or to support ongoing national processes, such as monitoring plans, or indeed continental and transnational ambitions, including the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the seven aspirations of Agenda 2063 which call for a more prosperous, integrated, democratic, peaceful, pan- African, people-driven, and influential Africa by 2033.
The tools collected here can be instrumental: in diagnosing food systems to identify critical gaps and untapped opportunities; in shaping nimble action plans in line with national priorities; in identifying much-needed policy reforms to ensure sectors act alongside each other, rather than against; and in providing new ways to effectively navigate political, financial, and technical impediments. Barriers have stood in the path of meaningful progress for too long – we must break through them.
N3F’s 2024 Nutrition Impact: Expanding Access to Nutritious Foods Across Sub-Saharan Africa
The Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F) released its first impact report, underscoring a strong selection of impactful investees enhancing nutrition across Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, the N3F portfolio collectively produced or facilitated access to over 647 million servings of nutritious food products, reaching an estimated 3 million end-consumers, the majority of whom are low- and middle-income households.
Understanding Moments of Change in Food Systems Transformation
Four years on from the UN Food Systems Summit, how well are we progressing in transforming food systems so that they reduce hunger, increase access to healthy diets, reduce climate emissions, improve climate resilience, create good jobs, and nurture the environment? The numbers tell a mixed story. According to the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, itself a creation of the UNFSS, only 20 of 42 global food system indicators are trending positively (1), with none fast enough to meet 2030 SDG goals. These numbers are important but inevitably reliant on data that are 2–3 years out of date.
Malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a major public health challenge worldwide, and progress on improving it has been very slow, with no country on track to meet global nutrition goals and the number of people affected by hunger or unable to afford a healthy diet rising in recent years.
