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A long-negotiated United Nations declaration to curb the global crises of chronic diseases and mental health hit a roadblock last week when the United States said it would reject the effort.
The nonbinding political declaration on noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, was expected to be adopted by consensus, with most countries supporting it in a high-level meeting on Thursday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. It details rising rates of issues such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, which, along with other NCDs, account for 43 million deaths each year, according to the U.N. Alcohol, tobacco, and ultra-processed food and drinks are key drivers of obesity, which is closely linked to NCDs.
But in a speech, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the U.N.’s approach “misdirected,” saying that the text — which had been through multiple rounds of revisions, in which the U.S. took part — “attempts to do too little and too much” and “exceeds the U.N.’s proper role.” As for which aspects of the declaration the U.S. opposed, RFK Jr. was light on details. It will now go before the full General Assembly for a vote and is expected to pass.
On its surface, U.S. opposition to the declaration doesn’t match the Trump administration’s stated goals. The document aligns with its “Make America Healthy Again” strategy, which RFK Jr. leads. The NCD text says countries should promote healthy diets and increase access to affordable fruits and vegetables. Proper nutrition has been a major focus for RFK Jr., winning him the support of some food and nutrition experts who rarely see eye to eye with the Trump administration.
A MAHA plan for children’s health released last month calls for 128 executive actions and reforms aimed at addressing chronic diseases — including tackling ultra-processed foods and boosting physical activity. And although many experts have criticized the final version of the U.N.’s NCD declaration as being too watered down — for example, it softens prior language calling for taxes for tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks — it references policies that the MAHA strategy supports, such as introducing front-of-package nutrition labeling and protecting children from food industry marketing of unhealthy foods.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is working with Congress to cut millions of people from a federal nutrition assistance program known as SNAP — and as of today, more federal food programs are at risk due to a government shutdown.
“How can we “Make America Healthy Again” unless we renew our commitment to ensuring access to food for children, seniors, veterans and families?” points out Eric Mitchell, president of the Washington-based Alliance to End Hunger. That same question could be asked at the international level.
In the end, the U.S. opposition to the NCD declaration may have less to do with its contents and more to do with the Trump administration’s general beef with the U.N. In explaining the U.S. position, RFK Jr. said the U.S. “cannot accept language that pushes destructive gender ideology. Neither can we accept claims of a constitutional or international right to abortion. The WHO cannot claim credibility or leadership until it undergoes radical reform.” The text does not mention abortion, and it only mentions gender in noting that women face a higher burden of NCDs. RFK Jr.’s comments echo the “America First” posture that the U.S. has taken toward other U.N. agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme. And in January this year, the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization over what it views as a mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As for a bright spot from UNGA80: Last week, more than $111 million in new pledges were made toward UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund. The commitments came from the governments of Canada and Ireland, along with the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and the ELMA Relief Foundation. CNF’s financing model could allow it to match the funds and double that value to more than $222 million.
Read: US objections stall UN effort to tackle noncommunicable diseases
Background reading: NCDs political declaration risks watered-down ambitions
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This Friday marks the launch of EAT-Lancet 2.0, an update to the ambitious, landmark diet that aimed to nutritiously feed the world’s estimated population of 10 billion in 2050 while not breaching the limits of planetary health. The first report, released in 2019, has been one of the most influential and cited scientific papers in the world — though it also faced significant backlash, primarily for its recommendation that people should reduce their meat consumption. The next report, which will be launched at a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, is expected to go even more in-depth.
Will you be in Stockholm this weekend? I’ll be there and would love to meet you. Drop me a line at tania.karas@devex.com.
From our archives: ‘Transformation takes time’ — Q&A with Richard Horton on the EAT-Lancet Commission diet
See also: The EAT-Lancet Diet is unaffordable, but who is to blame?
Enough talk, let’s act. Whether it be from Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, or the Greenpeace activists dressed as pigs and cows outside the FAO HQ in Rome this week, this has been the energy emanating from the U.N. agency’s second Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation.
“Today, we have the chance to shape livestock systems that nourish everyone, protect our planet, and empower communities for generations to come,” Dongyu said Monday in opening the three-day event. “The time to act is now.”
The problem is that the rearing of cows, pigs, and other animals is one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions — but animal products are integral to food security and nutrition, while supporting the livelihoods of 1.3 billion people. At the same time, there are issues around animal welfare and animal-to-human disease to contend with.
It’s against this backdrop that the gathering spotlighted the experiences of farmers and the commitments countries and companies are already making to make livestock systems “more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.” These include ideas from the deployment of heat-tolerant vaccines to stave off deadly diseases in animals to the training of poultry farmers on biosecurity. How to scale up innovative ideas was a key topic of Day 2, while FAO launched two new technical guidelines to help “better evaluate the environmental, social, and economic contributions of livestock systems.”
Related: Satellites help farmers find grazing ‘sweet spot’ to cut livestock methane
$1 billion
—That’s how much the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development has issued in sustainable bonds — a type of financing that allows institutions to raise money from investors and repay it over time, while directing those funds to projects with social or environmental benefits.
“It’s not humanitarian — it’s an investment opportunity,” said IFAD Associate Vice President Federica Diamanti, who announced the milestone at the Building Bridges conference in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday. “We see that with $1, there are at least $2 to $4 economic returns for investing in the agrifood system.”
Over the past three years, IFAD has issued 12 sustainable development bonds, with its most recent through a Japanese life insurance company. Through these bonds, IFAD can raise capital from investors — such as pension funds or asset managers — who buy the bonds upfront in exchange for regular interest payments and repayment of the principal after a set period of time.
The agency channels that money into loans for rural development projects, lending to IFAD member countries to support smallholder farmers, strengthening food systems, and helping rural communities adapt to climate change. After earning an AA+ credit rating, IFAD can borrow at low interest rates and lend at slightly higher ones — a difference that keeps IFAD’s operations sustainable, and allows it to recycle capital into new projects.
Read: How IFAD issued $1 billion in sustainable bonds
Related: As aid budgets shrink, how did support for this UN agency grow? (Pro)
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The Trump administration is canceling $72 million for USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs by using a controversial loophole to cancel federal funding at the end of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. [Politico]
The world is on track for record harvests this year, according to USDA data. [Sustainability by numbers]
Online backlash against the 2019 EAT-Lancet report was driven by a coordinated campaign of 100 influencers and backed by the meat industry, a new study finds. [Changing Markets Foundation]
China’s snub of U.S.-grown soybeans, a reaction to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, is a crisis for American farmers [The New York Times]
Elissa Miolene and Rebecca Root contributed to this edition of Devex Dish.