The operating environment we are in right now is extremely difficult, but it is also clarifying.
With just five years remaining to achieve the World Health Assembly Global Nutrition Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals, the choice before us is stark: accept a narrowing of ambition, or step forward with the resolve and creativity required to protect progress and accelerate impact. At Nutrition International, we are choosing to step forward.
Nutrition is not a peripheral issue; it forms the rungs on the ladder that people use to climb out of poverty. It is one of the smartest investments societies can make — underpinning health, learning, productivity and long-term resilience. When nutrition is neglected, human potential is lost. When it is prioritized, the returns are profound and long-lasting.
Nutrition International was founded in 1990 in response to the World Summit for Children, driven by a simple but urgent question: why are so many children dying from causes that are preventable? Thirty-five years later, global health progress has helped save more than 100 million children. That progress is neither inevitable nor irreversible — and sustaining it now in this moment of global crisis matters more than ever.
Over the past year, we have focused on what works: protecting hard-won progress, closing persistent gaps, and scaling evidence-based solutions that deliver outsized returns for women, adolescents, and children. Across more than 60 countries, we continue to generate cutting-edge research, provide trusted technical expertise, and support governments and partners to take proven, cost-effective high-impact interventions to scale.
Vitamin A, multiple micronutrient supplements, large-scale food fortification, and innovations such as double-fortified salt with iodine and folic acid show what is possible — simple, scalable solutions that can save lives, prevent blindness, prevent birth defects and close critical micronutrient gaps at population level. With the right leadership and partnerships, these solutions can change the trajectory of millions of lives.
The road ahead will not be easy. But it is navigable. By remaining focused, collaborative and grounded in evidence, we can ensure that every woman, every adolescent, and every child has the nutrition they need to survive and thrive.
Thank you for taking the time to read this report and to engage with the work we do at Nutrition International. Stay hopeful!
JOEL C. SPICER
President and CEO, Nutrition International