Nutrition and Public Development Banks: A Movement in the Making

🔍 Why Nutrition, Why Now?

Malnutrition remains a silent crisis—undermining human development, economic resilience, and social equity. Despite global attention, financing for nutrition continues to fall short of what’s needed to meet SDG 2 (Zero Hunger).

Public Development Banks (PDBs)—which collectively channel over $2 trillion annually into agriculture, infrastructure, and food systems ( FiCs, 2020)—hold transformative potential to contribute to the closure of this financing gap. Yet nutrition remains a blind spot in most PDB mandates and investment frameworks.

To address this, the Agri-PDB Platform launched its Nutrition Theme to:

Position PDBs as key drivers of nutrition-sensitive financing

Equip institutions with the tools, partnerships, and policy frameworks to act

Convene and align actors across the development finance ecosystem

In just a few months, the Platform’s work on nutrition has evolved into a dynamic collaborative space—driving innovation, strengthening accountability, and turning high-level ambition into actionable progress.

📌 Milestones: Progress with Purpose

1. First Nutrition Webinar – January 2025

The session explored how PDBs can integrate nutrition goals into agricultural investments to drive sustainable development. Co-hosted by the Agri-PDB Platform, World Food Programme (WFP), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and Results for Development (R4D), the webinar attracted over 100 participants, including representatives from PDBs, technical agencies, and development partners.

Key insights included:

NABARD (India) highlighted its promotion of agro-biodiversity, soil/water conservation, and climate-resilient crops to improve nutrition and income.

WFP’s SheCan (Cameroon) demonstrated how blended finance improves school feeding and supports smallholder women farmers.

R4D introduced the OECD nutrition policy marker—a practical tool for tracking nutrition-sensitive finance.

Gret emphasized integrating food diversity and gender equity into local agricultural systems.

The session laid the groundwork for building a shared language, tools, and momentum across the platform.

2. FiCS Nutrition Side Event (Cape Town) – February 2025

Held as part of the Finance in Common Summit, the event—co-hosted with AFD—brought together 45 high-level participants from AfDB, IFAD, World Bank, GAIN, Proparco, JICA, the EU, and others.

The focus: How can PDBs mobilize investments for nutrition-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, social protection, and food systems?

Key models included:

AfDB and IFAD shared approaches to scaling nutrition-sensitive investments, including the use of markers and behavior-change campaigns.

GAIN, the World Bank, Proparco, and the EU highlighted blended finance solutions to support SMEs and engage the private sector.

Barriers identified:

Nutrition is often seen as outside core mandates

It lacks visibility as an “investable” opportunity

Internal capacity and tools are limited within many PDBs

The session concluded with a unified call for concrete commitments at the upcoming N4G Summit—positioning nutrition as central to resilience, economic growth, and sustainable development.

3. Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit – March 2025

The opening plenary of the N4G Summit in Paris highlighted the Agri-PDB Platform’s rapid growth and its pivotal role in promoting nutrition-sensitive investments through public development banks.

Rémy Rioux, CEO of AFD, noted that “two-thirds of agricultural funding is public and comes from public banks,” emphasizing the strategic role of the Agri-PDB Platform and its growing coalition of 45 agri-food PDBs within the FiCS movement.

Álvaro Lario, President of IFAD, reinforced this, stating: “Nutrition is not just about food—it’s about people’s health, resilience, and economic returns.” He highlighted the Platform’s reach to nearly 150 agricultural and public development banks worldwide.

The Platform also contributed to the N4G side event “Mobilising PDBs for Nutrition,” where over 80 stakeholders discussed practical ways to:

Integrate nutrition into bank mandates

Apply tools like blended finance and multi-sectoral plans

Strengthen institutional capacity through peer learning

The event solidified the Platform’s position as a key player in the global nutrition financing agenda.

4. Collaborative Partner Meeting – April 2025

Following the momentum of previous engagements, the Platform hosted its first collaborative meeting with partners including GAIN, FAO, IFAD, WFP, SUN, AFD, and Gret.

The goal: Align on priorities and co-create practical solutions to support PDBs in identifying, tracking, and scaling nutrition-focused financing.

🔑 Key Outcomes & Next Steps

The collaborative partner meeting marked a pivotal moment—shifting the Nutrition Theme from conversation to coordinated action. Partners aligned on four priority areas:

🔹 Understanding PDB Needs – A case study with 4–5 national PDBs will explore priorities, challenges, and entry points for nutrition integration.
🔹 Clarity and Practical Tools – Partners commit to defining the scope of nutrition-sensitive investments and to adapting existing resources, including FAO’s Toolkit, into simplified, PDB-friendly formats to support practical application.

🔹 Measurement and Tracking – Partners agree to co-develop a simplified nutrition marker—drawing on tools like the OECD marker, GAIN’s IRIS+ indicators, and IFAD’s ORMS system —to help PDBs identify, track, and report on nutrition-sensitive projects, while clarifying the scope of what qualifies as nutrition-sensitive.

🔹 Commitment and Capacity Building – AFD proposed a webinar series to strengthen engagement, with suggested topics such as mobilizing finance, guarantees, and technical assistance for nutrition; partners also emphasized the need for harmonized frameworks and clear funding pathways.