The N4D Team introduce the latest mini-series on the weighty theme of more and better financing for nutrition in the run up to the Nutrition for Growth summit, an event through which national and international pledges are made towards reducing levels of malnutrition globally. 

In this first episode we set the scene for why this mini-series is important, locating this within current initiatives and studies intended to galvanise better financing for nutrition ahead of, during and post the N4G summit. One highly significant piece of work is the newly published World Bank Nutrition Investment Framework that we recommend as essential reading for our listeners. 

The N4D team also discuss some of the key messages from a policy brief on ‘more and better financing’ for nutrition’ that they have been working on together with a number of country nutrition specialists. This policy brief covers current financing challenges for nutrition, particularly in situations of protracted crisis, and some of the reasons for this. The policy brief will be disseminated in the build-up to the N4G summit. 

This introductory podcast signposts subsequent planned episodes in the mini-series, including a deep dive into the current state of financing for nutrition actions in situations of protracted crisis, through conversations with nutrition leaders from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Niger and Yemen. We will then broaden out the series to speak with nutrition leaders from more stable contexts. This will be followed by further episodes with global financing experts exploring issues such as the global financing landscape, advocacy for better financing and innovative financing approaches.

N4D are not experts in financing but our listeners can look forward to a number of podcasts where we will be in discussion with knowledgeable people who understand what enables and hinders domestic (i.e. from national treasury) and external financing (often called aid or development assistance); and how these financing mechanisms align with national and sub-national multisectoral nutrition action plans.

The impact of high-level political leadership in Malawi on mobilising nutrition financing and improving nutrition outcomes

In this episode, Felix Phiri, who until recently played a lead role in the Government of Malawi coordinating multisectoral nutrition actions, highlights how leadership from the Office of the President helped accelerate progress across sectors towards national nutrition targets and how progress has been slower when this high-level political leadership has not been present. He explains how nutrition officers and budget lines were integrated into sectors and at local authority level increasing capacity to scale up multisectoral interventions. The role of parliamentarians and civil society in promoting and sustaining the required political commitment is another key message. Felix´s experiences at the heart of government efforts on nutrition for over 20 years are essential listening for nutrition leaders in other countries and everyone involved in supporting country led nutrition action.

Welcome to the latest N4D podcast, in the days before the global nutrition community converges like a well-coordinated multisectoral nutrition programme, on Paris for the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit 2025.

In the last episode, Brieuc Pont, France’s Special Envoy on nutrition and secretary-general for N4G shared his hopes and expectations for the Summit and his views on how to make investment in nutrition a political priority. Sticking with the theme, today we are lucky to be joined by Asma Lateef, Chief of Policy and Advocacy at the SDG 2 Advocacy Hub and Dan Irvine, Global Director for Health and Nutrition at World Vision International.

Dan and Asma discuss with us the findings and recommendations from their joint research on how to catalyse more and better financing for nutrition in a climate where aid is declining whilst needs are rapidly increasing. They also share their hopes for conversations on resilience at an N4G that is like no other, in the current context of global aid retraction – and looking ahead to the SUN Movement’s 4.0 strategy process as a key moment to accelerate progress in ending malnutrition.

Making international support more effective

In this episode, the N4D team introduce our new series ¨Country-led: rhetoric or reality?¨ in which we will be discussing with nutrition leaders from country and global levels how to make international support for country-led nutrition action more coherent and effective. It has been 15 years since the first Lancet nutrition series which concluded there was ¨an urgent need for new architecture and governance arrangements to address the highly fragmented and poorly led nutrition architecture¨.

Have the coherence and  effectiveness of international support to countries really increased over the last 15 years? What needs to be done now to increase the country level impact of the global nutrition architecture? With our guests, we aim to identify concrete recommendations, building on successes to date, for international support to better address country priorities and needs.

The role of international actors in mobilising country led, multisectoral nutrition action

In this episode, Shams describes how international support helped promote country led, multisectoral and multistakeholder actions for nutrition in Afghanistan. He highlights the importance of sustaining and adapting this support to changing circumstances even in highly complex contexts such as Afghanistan. Whilst international financial and technical assistance are vital, sustained, country specific advocacy also plays a vital role. 

Understanding NIPN. Conversations with Global Actors

In this episode (No. 6, part 1), N4D interview two global actors, Christoph Langenkamp and Rebecca Heidkamp, about the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN). N4D have been working closely with global and country actors over the past year as part of an evaluation of NIPN commissioned by GIZ-C4N. This innovative and highly successful programme which is currently implemented in 9 countries, is gathering momentum with the prospect of being adapted and adopted in other country contexts.

In the podcast Christoph describes how the original vision and focus for NIPN moved from a programme largely about harnessing existing nutrition data in country to a programme focussing on multi-sector nutrition data and it’s role in informing policy development and multisector nutrition planning.

Rebecca Heidkamp provides a context for NIPN in relation to other global nutrition data initiatives describing what is unique about the NIPN approach but also cautioning how governments need to prioritise budgets for national nutrition information platforms within their nutrition action plans.

Learn about our work and read our report about NIPN here

Visit:
NIPN  | GIZ  | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health

Understanding NIPN. Conversations with Country Actors, Niger & Ethiopia

In this episode (No. 6, part 2), N4D interview several country actors, about the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN). N4D have been working closely with global and country actors over the past year as part of an evaluation of NIPN commissioned by GIZ-C4N. This innovative and highly successful programme which is currently implemented in 9 countries, is gathering momentum with the prospect of being adapted and adopted in other country contexts.

In this podcast:

Niger: Balarabe, Mohamed and Mababou discuss how proud they are of the hard won achievements with implementing NIPN in Niger. Key amongst these has been the systematic collation and cleaning of complex data sets, the analysis of this data based on priority policy focussed questions including nutrition and climate change, gender disparities and food systems considerations. They also discuss the tough decisions they have had to take and enormous amount of collective effort to get NIPN to where it is now….as central to Niger’s efforts to monitor progress with tackling malnutrition.

Ethiopia: Dr Aregash Samuel Hafebo from EPHI in Ethiopia explains why this Public Health Institute under the MoH is such a good fit for NIPN in terms of its role vis is a vis the National Food and Nutrition Strategy and the monitoring of this strategy’s implementation. She also describes the areas NIPN Ethiopia are excelling in like the posting of meta data sets on the NIPN dashboard in a country where the data sharing culture is weak as well as how NIPN plans to devolve to 6 regions where EPHI currently have offices.

In this first episode of ¨The Politics of Ending Malnutrition¨, the N4D Directors, Carmel, Chris and Jeremy, discuss the purpose of the Podcast and how it relates to N4D´s country focussed strategy. They explain how the series of exciting and challenging conversations with decision makers will explore the way in which political and economic issues enable and hinder the scale up of evidence-based solutions to end malnutrition around the world.

Reading list:
For the definition of political economy quoted by Chris and a guide to understanding political economy analysis and thinking and working politically, learn more here

For information on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement

To read background on CMAM – the Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition and the barriers to scale up and how they might be overcome

In this episode, Carmel, Chris and Jeremy discuss the politics of aid in fragile states with Habib Ur Rehman Mayar, Deputy General Secretary of the g7+ Secretariat and Executive Director of g7+ Foundation. The g7+ is an intergovernmental organisation made up of conflict-affected countries, providing a platform to collectively voice the need for national dialogue and reconciliation; advocate for effective development cooperation founded on the principles of country ownership, transparency and mutual accountability; and facilitate sharing of first-hand experience and good development practices. In this conversation, Habib advocates for reforms to the international aid system to support country led, sustainable development and solutions to conflict.

Reading list: 

• Read about the G7+ here
• Learn about the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States and the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS)
• Find out more about N4D´s work in Yemen