Deeply concerned by the rising trend of hunger in the world, the Council of the EU underlined, on Monday 25 November, the need to accelerate action to achieve Universal Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), namely to eliminate all forms of hunger and malnutrition in order to achieve zero hunger by 2030.
It therefore welcomes and supports the recommendations of the Fourth Progress Report of the EU Nutrition Action Plan, which aims in particular to reduce the number of stunted children under five years of age by at least seven million by 2025.
The conclusions adopted without debate by the European Development Ministers recall that 149 million children under the age of five are currently stunted and 49 million children of the same age remain at risk of death due to malnutrition.
The EU Council welcomes the fact that the Commission has met 87% of its commitment to allocate €3.5 billion to nutrition between 2014 and 2020 and urges continued efforts to achieve the target.
The EU Council notes that 4.9 million children will have escaped stunting by 2025 in countries that prioritise nutrition, which represents commendable progress towards the goal of reducing stunting by at least 7 million by 2025.
To strengthen programme design, the EU Council stresses the urgent need to accelerate the reduction of stunting by strengthening multisectoral measures.
It also believes it is important to integrate gender equality and women's empowerment into the design and implementation of nutrition programmes.
The EU Council recommends developing a more strategic approach to developing the nutritional capacities of national institutions and partners charged with implementation. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)