Nutrition Connect is committed to sharing high-quality, credible and objective information with practitioners interested in exploring public private engagement (PPE) for nutrition so they can make informed decisions based on the best-available resources. 

 

About us

Nutrition Connect is an initiative of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Nutrition Connect’s purpose is to mobilise knowledge, share experiences, and stimulate dialogue on public private engagements (PPE) for nutrition. We want to answer the question: How can nutritious and safe food be made more accessible, affordable and desirable, for everyone, everywhere, at all stages stage of life? 

Nutrition Connect is an open access resource which brings together the knowledge we already have around PPE, stimulates the development of new knowledge, and generates dialogue and partnerships. It is a safe space for engagement to connect people; facts and understanding; and evidence and action.

Resources have been curated for stakeholders from government, business, civil society and academia who – together – can identify innovative solutions, form new and novel partnerships and share good practices for effective PPE that drives investment and action to improve nutrition.

 

The Challenge

Malnutrition affects 1 in 3 people globally. The number of people who are overweight or suffer from a noncommunicable disease is rising, while high rates of undernutrition persist among children¹, limiting their ability to grow, develop, and thrive throughout their lifetime. We know that diet is the primary driver of disease globally², with 11 million deaths attributable to dietary factors³. Too many people cannot access the quantity and quality of nutritious safe foods they need to promote health and prevent disease.

Just as poor nutrition can diminish potential, good nutrition can unleash it. Ensuring nutritious safe foods are available, affordable, and desirable is a key part of addressing all forms of malnutrition: stunting and wasting, micronutrient deficiency, overweight/obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.

 

Why public private engagement? 

Public private engagement (PPE) has the potential to help governments deliver on their targets, harness the power and reach of businesses, and reduce the financial and health burdens that are linked to poor diets, but only if designed, implemented and evaluated carefully.

The way people access, prepare, purchase and consume food is evolving rapidly.

Looking to the future, changes in demographics, population, climate and markets will continue to impact what, how and where we eat. As we adjust to face this challenge, leveraging the resources of the public and private sectors to tackle malnutrition together offers a unique opportunity. Bringing together committed partners through greater engagement of public and private sector actors can help drive investment, action and impact to make nutritious and safe foods the norm.

PPE takes many forms: from dialogue to coordination to collaboration to partnership. For us, it is any interaction between the public (government, civil society, academia, consumers) and business (of any scale) that promotes the consumption of nutritious and safe foods.

Nutrition Connect aims to:

• provide examples of PPE models and approaches that can help advance nutrition
• make it easier to identify potential partners
• build understanding of the types of risks inherent in PPEs and how to avoid and mitigate them
• promote transparency about what works and what does not, and why
• highlight emerging issues
• help develop solutions to unresolved problems
• identify ways to leverage public and private resources to bring improved nutrition for all

In doing so, Nutrition Connect hopes to build trust and understanding so that governments, the private sector, civil society and academia can work better together to advance nutrition.

 

 

¹ Joint Malnutrition Estimates, WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, 2019.
² 2016 Global Nutrition Report.
³ Lancet, Global diet and health: old questions, fresh evidence, and new horizons, April 2019.