It features moving personal stories from Peru, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, and reactions from the experts working on a coordinated response to alleviate the suffering of millions. 4SD Foundation’s Strategic Director, David Nabarro, who is a member of the GCRG features in two of the videos.

Click here to view the playlist on the UN Geneva YouTube channel.

In line with global efforts to prevent multiple famines and food crises predicted this year, our Strategic Director, Dr David Nabarro, was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the end of March 2022 as: 

• A member of the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) Steering Committee  
• Co-Leader of the GCRG Food Workstream  
• A member of the GCRG Task Team  

In the UN Secretary-General’s opening remarks to the Steering Committee of the GCRG in March 2022, he said, “We need to bring developed and developing countries together to find global solutions. Because this is a global crisis.  No country will be able to insulate itself from a meltdown of the global economic system; from the domino effect of hoarding food or fuel; or from the long-term impact of increased poverty and hunger.”  

Since the appointment, we have provided the comprehensive support needed to help ensure that the response group is as fully as effective as possible. More information about the GCRG can be found at https://news.un.org/pages/global-crisis-response-group/.

The country in which you are sitting as you read this article has a lot of malnourished people. We know this because every country in the world is experiencing some form of malnutrition at very serious levels. It is not good news.

In the high-income countries it is the problems of obesity, diabetes, strokes, high blood pressure and cancer that catch the headlines and fill up the hospitals and mortuaries. In low-income countries, it is infant wasting and stunting that fills up the small coffins and burial mounds. In the middle-income countries, it is both. These manifestations directly affect one in three people on this planet, putting each of us one degree of separation – at most – away from malnutrition.

The burden of malnutrition carried by the planet is staggering. Together, high body weight, poor diets and child and maternal malnutrition account for half of all the world’s combined mortality and morbidity. Poor diets account for one in five deaths worldwide. And as obesity rates escalate and hunger numbers creep up, the bad news data are only going to get worse if we don’t do something different – and fast.

What needs to happen? We need to give new meaning to the food we eat. It is not about fuelling the body but about nourishing it. We also need to repurpose our food systems: from commerce that is indifferent to the health of people and the planet, to commerce that seeks to enhance financial returns through caring for those very same goals.

Continue reading at The Telegraph: Malnutrition is a staggering global burden – we must give new meaning to the food we eat