Nutrition for Growth (N4G) is a global pledging moment to drive greater action toward ending malnutrition and helping ensure everyone, everywhere can reach their full potential.

Over the past decade, the governments of the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Japan each stepped up to mobilize N4G nutrition commitments against the backdrop of the Olympics—a symbol of health, strength, and human potential. With the support of governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector, the result has been unprecedented, coordinated, and impactful commitments to improve global nutrition.

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Together, the BCG developed five areas of SMART commitments. These will be set out as a contribution to N4G in Tokyo and highlight the BCG’s commitment to better nutrition globally:

1. The Responsible Business Pledge for Better Nutrition (RBP): The RBP, developed by WBCSD and IFBA with the support of the broader Business Constituency Group, is a framework to enable private sector leadership and SMART commitment-making for the N4G Summit. Fully aligned with the N4G Commitment-making Guide and Principles of Engagement, it calls on business leaders to make nutrition a board-level priority and for each corporate signatory to bring forward at least three SMART commitments to N4G spanning several commitment areas that link to core business models and operations: Nutrition-Smart Agriculture, Product Reformulation and Innovation for Improved Nutrition, Business Model Innovation for Improved Nutrition, Responsible Marketing, Promote Healthy Eating, Workforce Nutrition and Finance and Investment for Improved Nutrition. On day one of the N4G Summit, WBCSD will share an overview of the history and work of the BCG as well as the development of the RBP. Some of the WBCSD member companies’ recent nutrition commitments can be found here.

2. A new Investor Coalition: This sets investor expectations related to corporate governance, strategy, lobbying and transparency for food and beverage manufacturers and retailers. Supported by ATNI, 76 investors representing $16.6 trillion in assets under management have signed up to the Investor Expectations on Nutrition, Diets and Health, thereby joining the coalition. On day one of the N4G Summit, the investor coalition will be presented by the Japanese investment firm Resona Asset Management.

3. International Food and Beverage Alliance member companies have been working on new global nutrition commitments as part of the Responsible Business Pledge. The first new commitment is about sodium reduction. IFBA has set new global targets for maximum sodium content of packaged foods across some forty food sub-categories, for 2025 and 2030. Each IFBA company will commit to meeting these targets across key categories that together comprise at least 75% of the company’s sales. This is the first time ever that collective voluntary global sodium content targets are set in the private sector. Secondly, IFBA has developed an enhanced Global Responsible Marketing Policy. Based on this policy, IFBA companies must ether limit products they market to children under 13 to products that meet a set of specific nutrition criteria; or refrain from directing marketing to children under 13 altogether. This is a minimum global standard with which all IFBA companies commit to comply with as of 2022. IFBA will elaborate upon these commitments in the thematic session on Food Systems for Healthy Diets during day two of the N4G Summit.

4. The Workforce Nutrition Alliance, co-led by CGF and GAIN, supports employers to adopt and expand workforce nutrition programmes. It will impact 3 million employees in their organisations and supply chains by 2025. Its most recent signatory, Google, will present The Workforce Nutrition Alliance on day one of the N4G Summit.

5. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): The SUN Business Network pledges a set of commitments to raise awareness of the role of SMEs in nutrition and with the support of partners strengthen the capacity of SMEs to provide nutritious foods. These commitments include the recruitment of 3,000 SMEs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America by the end of 2024. On day two of the N4G Summit, in the Food Systems for Healthy Diets Session, SBN will present these commitments.

This statement is written on behalf of all Business Constituency Group members: the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI); The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF); Food Industry Asia (FIA); the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN); the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA); the Nutrition Japan Public Private Platform (NJPPP); the Sun Business Network (SBN); and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).