UK Aid: Nutrition-sensitive Programmes

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the work of my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Collins, in co-chairing the APPG, an important body. Our current commitments to nutrition will come to an end in 2020, so the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth summit in December will really be a key moment in making sure that progress continues. We have bold ambitions for the summit. We are working closely with the Government of Japan to ensure that it is a success. We are looking to strengthen health systems, to come up with longer-term funding and to ensure that Governments, donors and businesses take positive action to improve access to nutritious and sustainable diets. I would be delighted to come along to the APPG with officials to provide further briefing.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, last year the Government made an announcement of £61 million to be invested in supporting crops that can help to prevent food insecurity as a result of climate change. Such climate-resilient crops really should pack a punch and contribute well to a healthy, nutritious diet, so will the Minister commit to ensuring that nutrition sensitivity is embedded throughout DfID’s climate and food and agriculture portfolio?

[Baroness Sugg]

My Lords, climate modelling shows that the additional deaths that will stem from climate change will be largely due to undernutrition, so it is absolutely right that we focus on this. There are two ways in which we need to do that: through both the quantity of food available—we are looking at investing in flood-tolerant rice and drought-tolerant maize, for example—and the quality, ensuring that healthier, nutritious diets are affordable and accessible. We are looking at nutrient-rich, biofortified staples such as vitamin A-enriched sweet potato or zinc-enriched maize. We will continue to ensure that we invest properly in new agricultural technologies so that the quality of the diet is available as well as the quantity.