From pledges to progress: Accountability for nutrition in a shifting world

During the 53rd Committee on World Food Security, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the government of Nigeria, PERUSAN, Access to Nutrition initiative and the Global Nutrition Report organized “From pledges to progress: Accountability for nutrition in a shifting world,” a timely side event on the importance of accountability. Emphasising varied voices, this critical conversation showed shared responsibility for holding ourselves and one another to account for our commitments to ending malnutrition in all its forms.

Accountability is necessary for turning ambitions into impact

Despite the changing landscape for development funding, 2025 was a landmark year for nutrition. As shared by Ambassador Tanguy Stehelin, Permanent Representative of France in Rome, the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Paris Summit demonstrated that nutrition is still understood to be one of the world’s ‘best buys’—with over US$30 billion pledged in newly registered commitments.

In his opening remarks on the United Kingdom’s (UK) approach to accountability, Toby Parker, United Kingdom Chargé d'Affaires to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, underscored that nobody is immune from accountability—not even donors. The UK has been diligent in registering its N4G commitments and providing annual updates on spend. This type of transparency from government, balanced with a strong and engaged civil society dedicated to raising public awareness and scrutiny, turns a commitment made into an action realised. Progress in nutrition requires action from health, agriculture, trade, finance, and education sectors—among others. The UK-led Global Compact for Nutrition Integration calls for greater collaboration across agencies to deliver nutrition outcomes across a wider range of sectors and economic strategies. Signatories hold each other accountable in delivering nutrition integration.

Holding nutrition actors accountable and understanding the real-world impact of nutrition action cannot happen without reliable, accessible data. Professor Giacomo Zanello, Co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report’s (GNR) Independent Expert Group echoed the importance of transparency in driving progress, helping maintain momentum and trust even in challenging circumstances. The GNR’s Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) is the official accountability mechanism for N4G. The GNR has seen that commitments that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) and backed by clear indicators are more likely to show positive progress. With about 44% of all registered commitments from the 2025 N4G Summit intending to target transition to sustainable food systems and climate for nutrition, the potential to deliver impactful changes for better nutrition is great, provided that those commitment-makers remain engaged in the accountability process, turning aspiration into reality.

Key challenges hampering impact

Global accountability for nutrition outcomes remains uneven. Tracking the 2021 N4G commitments showed how challenges posed by data gaps, limited resources and political instability can stall the most well-intentioned commitments. When polled, participants in this side event reported similar experiences, as seen in the graphic below. The primary challenges to accountability noted were a lack of political will and funding, with questions around ownership, transparency and coordination amongst actors also highly reported.

The issues of ownership and coordination are a special focus for civil society organisations. Faniry Hantarinivo Andrirakoto, Coordinator of Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Civil Society Alliance in Madagascar, stressed that ensuring civil society understands what accountability really means—and their role in it—is vitally important. Differing expectations between civil society, state authorities and communities can slow progress. In some cases, government institutions insist on validating civil society positions before they can act, and so community voices experience long delays in being heard. Harmonising understanding of accountability and clarifying the roles of each actor is therefore critical to ensure civil society can contribute effectively to improved nutrition outcomes.

When it comes to advancing integrated nutrition solutions across sectors, Dr. Joanne Raisin, Director of the SUN Movement Secretariat, emphasized that even though SUN countries desire nutrition integration, 90% struggle to deliver on nutrition action outside of health. Critical barriers include competing priorities, complex financing pathways unsuited to cross-sector work and numerous vertical initiatives restricting access to funding. They also struggle with a lack of high-quality data, which makes it harder to track progress and deliver on commitments. Even further, every single SUN country has requested help to strengthen accountability systems. This is because reliable data is essential for securing funding, measuring what matters and ensuring commitments are delivered.

Katherine Pittore from the Access to Nutrition initiative noted how difficult it is to access data on the private sector, especially around food pricing and affordability. The data they use to benchmark policies and products of the largest food and beverage companies is often unavailable or is behind a paywall. Without access to this data, it is very difficult to hold these companies accountable for making improvements for nutrition.

Accountability is everyone’s business

Overcoming these challenges requires mechanisms that work in practice, not just on paper. When commitments are matched with action at every level—from national leadership to community oversight—progress becomes possible. We all have a role to play to ensure we’re pushing progress forward together across sectors toward shared nutrition goals.

For governments, this could look like working in partnership with civil society so national policies translate to local impact. Uju Rochas-Anwukah, Focal Person on Nutrition at the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, shared how the government’s Nutrition 774 Initiative (N-774) works across all levels to ensure progress is possible at the local level in their decentralised system of government. By engaging local leaders, civil society and development partners across the 774 local government areas, the initiative aims to drive action from the bottom-up, aligning national policies with local realities, strengthening ownership, monitoring implementation and making progress visible.

Civil society also plays a crucial role in holding all actors accountable for the commitments they make. Delia Haustein, spokesperson and member of the coordinating committee at PERUSAN—a civil society alliance that promotes policies and actions for progress on nutrition—shared an example of the alliance’s Child Malnutrition Initiative. Back in 2005, the coalition mobilised public and political support to secure a commitment from presidential candidates to reduce child malnutrition by 5%, which was achieved by the end of the presidential administration. Since then, even as political instability in Peru has eroded public confidence, PERUSAN has continued to use trusted data sources and community monitoring to hold the government accountable for its pledges, demonstrating how citizen-led accountability is vital to keeping focus on impacted communities and sustaining progress over time.

Inspiration to act

The range of stakeholders moving beyond commitments to driving action and promoting transparency and accountability for impact is inspirational. From integrated solutions to transparent data to active civil society engagement, it will take all of us to turn promises into progress for nutrition. The NAF offers a strong accountability mechanism, provided that commitment makers participate in sharing their information clearly and transparently. The GNR aims to continue driving stronger commitment, action and accountability, all based on transparent and trusted data and evidence.