World Vision announces food system commitments to set a healthier and more equitable future for the most vulnerable children, families and communities 

Update 2022: Read Progress Report on World Vision’s Commitments made at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

World Vision announces it will prioritise its contribution to global, national and regional efforts to build more inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems that work for the world’s most vulnerable children through an ambitious set of commitments. Our commitments cover three Action Areas (Nourish All People, Boost Nature-Based Solutions of Production and Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks, and Stresses) where we believe World Vision can have the greatest positive impact on the food security, health, nutrition and resilience of the most vulnerable children, today and in future. 

“With 41 million people facing starvation in a world of plenty, it is clear our food systems are catastrophically broken. And Covid-19 has made matters much worse. Nutritious food is vital for children to achieve their God-given potential. Yet it is heart-breaking that a tenth of the world’s population went hungry in 2020 – an increase of 25 per cent in just one year. Alongside this, food production is a major contributor to climate change which, in turn, is wreaking havoc on communities. We are doing all we can to support the most vulnerable. But we need governments, civil society, private sector and communities to join us and tackle the root causes. The Food Systems Summit is a historic moment to do just that, addressing gross injustice and creating fair and equitable food systems for children today, and for future generations.” – Andrew Morley, International President and CEO of World Vision International 

World Vision’s commitments to building more inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems that deliver for the world’s most vulnerable children, families and communities are: 

 

1.   ACTION AREA: NOURISH ALL PEOPLE 

1.1 World Vision’s nutrition commitments: 

• Moblise US$ 1.2 Billion between 2021-2025 for nutrition interventions ($500 million private funding, $ 700 million grant-funding). 

•  Treat 600,000 wasted children through community management of acute malnutrition. 

• Reach 200,000 under-weight children with programmes that equip caregivers to improve diet diversity and prepare locally sourced nutritious food. 

• Support supplementary feeding for 250,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. 

• Leverage 184,000 World Vision-supported community health workers to reach the most vulnerable households (approximately 9 million households in 40 countries) with nutrition counselling, including infant and young child feeding counselling. 

• Scale up and promote the newly launched “Gender-Transformative Framework for Nutrition” for expanded use by nutrition practitioners. 

• Advocate, in collaboration with key partners and platforms for key nutrition-related outcomes at the Food Systems Summit to be integrated into the Nutrition for Growth Summit 

 

 

1.2 World Vision commitments to school meals for the most vulnerable children: 

• As a child-focused organisation committed to improving child well-being for the most vulnerable children, WV worked with communities to provide healthy school meals to over 1 million vulnerable children in seven of the most fragile contexts in 2020 alone. World Vision has signed a Declaration of Support for the Global School Meals Coalition which commits us to: 

• Support national, regional and international efforts to strengthen the most vulnerable children’s access to high quality integrated school meals programmes, with a focus on countries most vulnerable to poverty and climate change. 

• Collaborate with partners coalition members and other partners to improve the quality and efficiency of existing school meals programmes, with a focus on fragile settings. 

• Support the establishment and work of the coalition’s initiatives including advocacy and outreach and initiatives around best practices and accountability 

  

 

2.   ACTION AREAS: BOOST NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS OF PRODUCTION, BUILDING RESILIENCE TO VULNERABILITIES, SHOCKS AND STRESSES 

2.1 World Vision’s commitment to increased action on Ecosystem Restoration and regenerative agriculture practices: 

• World Vision will scale up its evidence-based Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) approach and other regenerative agriculture and ecosystem restoration initiatives to restore 350 million hectares of degraded ecosystems across 50 countries worldwide by 2030. 

• Building a global movement around cultivating a values-based imperative and support for ecosystem restoration among World Vision’s public stakeholders (including faith leaders) and children, adults and young people. 

• Generating increased political support for nature-based solutions through advocating for increased prioritisation and investment; empowering children and young people as champions for ecosystem restoration and supporting grassroots advocacy at national levels. 

• Build the technical capacity of World Vision staff and World Vision partners to accelerate the scale-up of FMNR globally. 

 

 

2.2 World Vision’s commitments to addressing food system failures to those affected by disasters: 

• Conflict, climate-related and health disasters cause major disruptions to food systems, with devastating consequences for the people that depend on them. National social protection systems help address extreme vulnerability through providing social safety nets to the most vulnerable people when disaster hits. When national social protection systems are not in place or are overwhelmed, humanitarian action becomes a critical international safety net to address the needs of most vulnerable people who are deeply impacted by food systems failure. Humanitarian cash and voucher programmes help disaster-affected people to meet immediate survival needs by reducing extreme poverty and better ensure children and their caregivers can recover and thrive. Cash and voucher programmes promote dignity for people affected by disasters through providing them with greater choice, control and flexibility. As a market based-based approach, cash and voucher programmes also contribute to food system recovery and resilience by supporting and strengthening local markets, small and medium sized businesses, and improving female and male smallholder farmers’ livelihoods.   

As a global leader in cash and voucher programming, World Vision is committed to support a minimum of four million vulnerable children per year through cash and voucher programmes by the end of 2022. 

 

Why food systems? 

The heavy health, social and economic impacts of hunger and malnutrition and broken food systems take their biggest toll on the most vulnerable children, families and communities. Worldwide, 768 million people are chronically hungry – in other words, they do not consume enough nutritious food each day to lead active and productive lives and 2.5 billion more cannot afford a healthy diet throughout the year. Over 155 million people were deeply impacted by acute food crises in 2020, a 15% increase from 2019, largely due to a deadly interplay between conflict, climate change and the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Of most concern are the 41 million people facing Emergency and Catastrophe levels of food insecurity, the vast majority of whom live in fragile/humanitarian contexts.  

The world produces more than enough food to feed everyone, but the current food system does not benefit everyone equally.  

The Summit provides a wide range of stakeholders from around the world an opportunity to come together to work collectively to transform the way the world produces, markets and consumes food and to be more inclusive, sustainable and resilient. 

For more information about the UN Food Systems Summit, please visit: https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/about