Nurture the Future

The way forward to tackle childhood obesity and malnutrition in the 21st century

Towards a Solution

In 2016, the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, enabled a first collaboration between the World Food Programme Centre of Excellence Against Hunger in Brazil (WFP CoE Brazil) and the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The collaboration led to joint activities to support countries of the global South to meet their N4G commitments.

WFP CoE Brazil served as a platform to share knowledge and respond to South-South learning requests from countries committed to scaling up their nutrition programmes. Building on the Summit experience and countries’demands, the two institutions designed a multisectoral partnership project, named Nurture the Future, with other Latin American peers to support countries to adopt policy apparatuses to tackle the multiple burden of malnutrition.

The Nurture the Future project was conceived in 2020 to help policy- makers in Brazil, Colombia and Peru tackle malnutrition in school-aged children. It gained momentum in the second half of 2020, as there was a striking increase in malnutrition rates (undernutrition, overweight, obesity, etc.) in Latin America due to COVID-19 outbreak response measures, making this South-South collaboration pivotal. The pandemic motivated the project partners to collaboratively support governments to renew their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the eradication of all forms of hunger by 2030 (SDG 2), in line with the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, through partnerships and cooperation (SDG 17).

Throughout 2021, the Nurture the Future project worked with Brazil, Colombia and Peru to strengthen knowledge sharing and capacity building related to their actions to reduce the multiple burdens of malnutrition, despite the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The adoption of a virtual and agile work methodology between WFP and the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Peru allowed horizontal knowledge production and event organization in this difficult context so that they could continue pursuing the SDGs. Project scheduling and tracking tools, central communications and standards for virtual project management and for work and event production were key to the production of informative and easy-to-understand videos for advocacy in the countries. International, regional and national dialogues on the topic took place, with the participation of government entities and other United Nations agencies. These mutual exchanges generated robust guidance materials, such as technical documents on the prevention of childhood obesity in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, and laid the foundation for policy- makers to make educated decisions on getting back on track to achiev- ing SDG 2 (2.1 and 2.2).

Virtual projects often require complex decision-making mechanisms; the Nurture the Future project established a strong network between ministries of health in the three countries to jointly achieve their Decade of Action on Nutrition targets. This is facilitated by translating the robust knowledge content into easy-to-understand communication and marketing materials (social media videos, cards, visual guides, etc.).

In 2021 in Brazil, for example, the WFP CoE became a signatory to a national commitment to prevent childhood obesity, supporting a national campaign on the theme with several actions to curb the advancement of childhood obesity in the country. The Brazilian National Strategy for Prevention and Attention to Childhood Obesity (Proteja), a Brazilian real 80 million (US$ 16 million) strategy, was inspired by and presented recommendations of the WFP CoE policy brief Childhood Obesity: Strategies for Prevention and Care, which had been launched on digital platforms by the project in early 2021. Colombia and Peru have been advancing their promotion of the consumption of natural and fresh foods, mainly in the implementation of regulatory measures, such as frontal nutrition labelling. WFP throughout Latin America, together with its member states, is at the forefront in developing a number of accessible, easy-to-understand guidance tools and social media materials to reach all and prevent malnutrition-related diseases, especially overweight and obesity.

The Nurture the Future project has yielded innovative solutions, such as disseminating the evidence-based material in easy-to-understand videos via Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media, to reach both general populations and food and nutrition policymakers. This knowledge sharing through social media played a big role during COVID-19 to keep government SDG commitments on track. Knowledge exchange with the global community was further ensured through: a) the production and dissemination of evidence-based materials; b) South-South cooperation, learning and policy dialogue activities; and c) technical support through remote assistance.

Much of the project’s success is credited to its horizontal and participatory engagement model and the commitment from partner governments to disseminate the knowledge materials through their networks. The approach adopted by the project, namely, to produce easy-to-understand materials based on technical collaborative evidence creation among partner countries, expanding South-South nutrition knowledge sharing beyond United Nations, governmental and academic personnel to children, parents and local policymakers by synthesizing it to their comprehension can be replicated in other countries using communication and social media strategies, production and marketing and a ‘hands-on’commitment between partner communication and techni- cal teams. These days, digital marketing is a must for any global south project to scale-up, connect with its audience’s interests, and eventually lead to action.