Each year, the Global Nutrition Report provides a snapshot of the state of malnutrition. The 2017 Report highlights the links between nutrition and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By emphasising that the SDGs are designed as an integrated approach to development, the authors call on all actors – government, business, civil society, academia – to look at how shared action can lead to the achievement of multiple goals, not just the ones directly related to their own work. The authors argue that this is an opportunity to come together and show that improving nutrition can actually help drive the SDG agenda as a whole – which is critical as findings suggest it will be a challenge to achieve any SDG without addressing nutrition (see Spotlight 1.2). To reach these global goals, the report challenges countries, NGOs, the private sector, UN agencies, and the research community to not only make commitments to nutrition but to embed those commitments into core operations and budgets. Improving nutrition will then have a powerful multiplier effect across the SDGs (Figure 3.2 is helpful in showing the link between nutrition and all SDGs).
