New EU partnership launched to combat Undernutrition with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

At the European Development Days (EDDs) forum the European Commission unveiled a major partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and announced new funding to tackle the global challenge of undernutrition. The EU will be supporting partner countries to reduce the number of children who are chronically undernourished by at least seven million by 2025, with € 23.5 million funding for an innovative new initiative: the National Information Platforms on Nutrition (NIPN). EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, confirmed the EU's commitment by announcing this new initiative, which will be a major step forward in providing partner countries with the tools to better monitor progress in the reduction of undernutrition, to improve information and analysis about nutrition, and to enable partner countries to develop well-informed and effective national nutrition policies as a result. It will allow stakeholders to coordinate and align their support with those policies and improve effectiveness, in order to achieve greater impact going forward. It will initially be rolled out in six countries (Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Laos and Niger.)


The primary goal of the EU's new partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be to join forces to implement the NIPN in order to improve accountability and governance on nutrition. They will provide $ 500,000 dollars for the initiative. The UK's Department for International Development will also support the initiative with £ 6.4 million.


For more information please check also www.eudevdays.eu.