Collaboration Leverages UNCDF’s Financing Capabilities and Tools in support of UNICEF’s Global Nutrition Strategy

UNICEF and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), with support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), today launched an innovative financing partnership to combat child malnutrition through investments in local production and manufacturing of essential nutrition supplies for children.

Through the partnership—signed by Pradeep Kurukulasariya, UNCDF Executive Secretary a.i. and June Kungi, UNICEF Director, Public Partnerships Division—UNCDF will establish and manage the Nutrition Supplier Finance Facility (the Facility) to activate financing for local manufacturers of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) and other essential nutrition supplies. This tackles a critical constraint preventing local suppliers from investing in additional manufacturing and production capacity. The Facility will operate with a geographic focus on least developed countries (LDCs), as well as lower-middle income economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Facility leverages UNCDF’s unique investment mandate to deploy loans and guarantees in combination with UNICEF’s Global Nutrition Strategy for children and women, while accelerating achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal to end child malnutrition. The Facility will make finance available for scaling up local production of lifesaving RUTF and other essential nutrition supplies, thereby enhancing supply chain resilience and expanding the local availability of essential nutrition supplies to children, families and communities in need.

The Facility will operate within the strategic context of the Child Nutrition Fund, a global initiative aimed at ending child wasting led by UNICEF, with support from the government of the United Kingdom, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners.

“Over the last decade we have made extraordinary global progress in providing treatment for life-threatening wasting to all children who need it,” said UNICEF Director of Child Nutrition and Development Victor Aguayo. “Currently, we estimate two-thirds of children with severe wasting in high mortality settings are receiving the therapeutic treatment they need with RUTF. Local manufacturing of RUTF has been integral to the sustainability of these efforts. The new partnership with UNCDF, and the creation of this new Supplier Financing Facility within the Child Nutrition Fund, will help strengthen these efforts and help us reach our goal to provide therapeutic foods to every child in need.”

“This is yet another strong example of UNCDF providing its turn-key investment service to the wider UN development system that enables our sister agencies to innovate and deliver more effectively on their respective missions,” said Anders Berlin, Director, UNCDF Least Developed Countries Investment Platform, which will manage the fund for UNCDF. “We believe we can achieve transformational SDG impact through the combination of UNCDF’s financing capabilities with UNICEF’s leadership and focus on children, signaling UNCDF’s value proposition to the UN Development System.”

The global situation on child food poverty and malnutrition is worsening in the face of increasing inequities, conflict and climate-related crises. An estimated 14 million children under the age of five, globally, suffer from severe wasting. For these children, timely therapeutic feeding and care makes the difference between life and death.

The new Facility is part of a multi-pronged global effort to transform and energize the response to child wasting, including bringing in new and innovative financing tools and mechanisms.

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About the United Nations Capital Development Fund
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the United Nations' flagship catalytic financing entity for the world’s 45 least developed countries (LDCs). With its unique capital mandate and focus on the LDCs, UNCDF works to invest and catalyze capital to support these countries in achieving the sustainable growth and inclusiveness envisioned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Doha Programme of Action for the least developed countries, 2022–2031.

Investment Disclaimer
UNCDF is solely responsible for management and implementation of the Facility, including all investment decisions. UNICEF will have no liability in relation to the Nutrition Supplier Finance Facility or any of its financial instruments. UNICEF does not endorse nor make any recommendation as to any investment, company or product.