Webinar launch: “Progress Towards the Global Nutrition Targets: Achievements of the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth and Year of Action Commitments” report
The GNR has published: “Progress Towards the Global Nutrition Targets: Achievements of the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth and Year of Action Commitments”. The report identifies types of commitment makers who made gains, faced challenges and experienced accelerators for progress, and facilitators of participation in nutrition accountability mechanisms. It supports those working to submit their N4G Paris 2025 commitments by 30 June, as well as those looking to invest in the enabling environment for implementing and tracking those commitments.
On 20 May, the GNR hosted a webinar that launched the report:
- Summarising commitment progress tracking findings: Presenting the report’s key findings and recommendations on participation and progress.
- Supporting evidence-based decision-making: Equipping stakeholders with insights to develop strong, clear commitments to improve nutrition policy, programmes and outcomes.
- Fostering collaboration and accountability: Promoting use of the report and its accompanying data (in the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) Commitment Tracker) to hold commitment makers to account for progress towards the global nutrition targets.
Watch the webinar below.
We thank Brieuc Pont, France Special Envoy for Nutrition and Secretary-General of the N4G Summit, and Sonia Ancellin-Panzani, Head of Country Action at the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, for providing framing remarks that linked the report to the 2025 Summit and honoured commitment makers' contributions in reporting their progress. They set the stage for Dr Shibani Ghosh and Dr Giacomo Zanello, the Co-chairs of the GNR’s Independent Expert Group, to present the report’s findings that SMARTness matters, progress was achieved, measurable indicators are key for tracking, barriers to progress were experienced, opportunities facilitated progress, and equity considerations are important.
Will you share all presentations with us after the session?
Yes, we will share the presentations via email. The webinar recording is also available on the GNR YouTube channel.
What is the difference between registered and reported goals?
Registered goals are all goals that were registered in the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) system for the 2021 Tokyo Summit and Nutrition Year of Action. Reported goals are the subset of those registered goals which were reported on by commitment makers during the progress tracking period (April through August 2024).
For the reporting differences for organisations in LMIC/HIC, etc. are you looking at the location of the headquarters only? Our operations are spread across both LMIC and HIC. According to the report, LMICs (67%) and HICs (67%) had a higher proportion of commitments with positive progress than LICs (41%). Are countries here grouped by commitment maker, or are they grouped by the target country of the commitment?
The country income classification is for the country where the commitment maker is based, as designated by the commitment maker when they created their account in the NAF. So, for example, if the South Sudan office of an organisation made the commitment, the income classification for that commitment would be for South Sudan.
Has there been a specific analysis of financial commitments?
While the NAF does report financial commitments, there is currently no separate analysis of financial commitments.
Can we find the details of the progress analysis for all the commitments that you were able to assess thanks to the high level of SMARTness, etc. in the report?
The report does present findings by level of SMARTness. Further information on progress by SMARTness score can be found on the NAF for individual commitment goals. You can download the data set for all commitment goals from the NAF Tracker.
Going forward, will it be possible for the NAF to track progress towards achieving national nutrition targets and the contribution of country-specific commitments to achieving those national targets?
Tracking the global nutrition targets requires an assessment of the targets across time that entails a different data set (national survey or Demographic Health Survey data) and different analyses. That analysis is part of the Country Nutrition Profiles (CNPs), a process that is undertaken every 2-3 years based on the availability of new data. With the 2025 Summit, tracking the progress of commitments was considered a priority as the CNPs had been updated in 2022-2023.
Thanks to GNR for sharing this important progress on the N4G Tokyo commitments. Looking ahead, how is GNR thinking about approaching the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) to encourage and support increased commitment tracking and reporting from governments, especially future tracking of commitments made under the N4G Paris commitments?
The development and implementation of the NAF was a major achievement of the N4G Tokyo Summit. Through verification at the time of commitment making and the subsequent progress assessment process of those commitments, several lessons were learned. These lessons include the need to streamline the registration form and to engage not only commitment makers but also the broader stakeholder community to encourage and support commitment making, tracking and reporting. The registration form was streamlined prior to the N4G Paris Summit, facilitating greater clarity in commitment making before, during and after the Summit. The community has also been instrumental before, during and after the Paris Summit, in creating ownership to encourage use of the NAF to register clear commitments and support increased tracking and reporting of these incoming N4G Paris commitments.
Have there been any changes in the review process for new N4G commitments to ensure more can be assessed in the future?
The recent clarification of the commitment registration form should support ensuring that more of the new commitments can be assessed in the future. Whether progress can be assessed also depends on whether commitments are reported on, and for that, the commitment makers and community members need to be engaged in the process.
Is there a schedule for N4G Paris reporting?
Currently, the focus is on garnering more commitments (through 30 June 2025) and undertaking the process of review, clarification and verification. This will be coupled with generating a SMARTness score. This involves significant one-to-one communication with the commitment maker.
Given that the new commitments started to come in through the NAF in early 2025, the determination of the reporting schedule can only be made following an understanding of the breadth and scope of the commitments. However, in general, GNR uses an annual to biannual reporting schedule. The decision on whether progress reporting will occur within a year of commitment making or slightly later will depend on how soon commitments are expected to achieve their expected outcomes and, on the resources, available.
The NAF commitment tracker does not show the Paris commitments yet. When will they be made available? Or is it being reported somewhere as a report? Can that be shared?
Currently, the registration of N4G Paris commitments is still open. Commitment makers have until 30 June 2025 to register their commitments.
We anticipate that all commitments (unverified) will be posted online after the close of the registration system.
However, the process of review, verification and computing of SMARTness scores for each commitment is ongoing and commitments will receive updated statuses (verified and level of SMARTness) as soon as GNR finalises the review with each commitment maker.
How are we planning to address rising costs on Nutrition, especially in LICs and LMICs?
It seems the question here is about rising costs of healthy diets. There is clearly a need to address costs, and it might help to look at records of individual commitments to understand the extent to which commitment makers are addressing affordability.
On financial support, do you look at debt as a component of financing?
We have not looked into this specifically. While commitment makers do report the financial mechanisms supporting their commitments, in most cases, there is no clear distinction between loans, bilateral aid or other internal financing mechanisms.