This French diplomat thinks nutrition is a ‘magic wand’ for development

Brieuc Pont is a French diplomat with a global mission: He’s rallying governments, businesses, philanthropy, civil society, and development banks to end malnutrition together. Last December he became France’s special envoy on nutrition and secretary-general of the Nutrition for Growth Summit, a major pledging conference. With four months until the big event in Paris on March 27-28, he’s been traveling worldwide trying to get anyone and everyone involved to prepare their commitments — both financial pledges and, for governments, nutrition policy plans. But with major donors such as the United States and Europe tightening aid budgets, it’s a tough time to ask for money. Still, Pont said he is “confident we will succeed.” “People very often hear about the summit when it takes place, when the summit is visible, above the clouds. But below the summit, there’s always a mountain, and right now, we're climbing that mountain with the stakeholders,” he told Devex during an interview at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. Nutrition for Growth, or N4G, takes place every four years in the same country that hosted the most recent Olympics and Paralympic Games. The last summit, held in Japan in 2021, raised a record $27 billion from 181 groups across 78 countries. “My message: N4G is in four months now, so everyone needs to start designing pledges. If those pledges are ready, be my guest if you want to announce them, because we need to encourage others as well.” --— Brieuc Pont, secretary-general of the Nutrition for Growth Summit Pont, who previously served as France’s ambassador to Nicaragua and consul general in São Paulo, Brazil, likes to remind people that he is not a nutrition expert. Rather, he said, he’s here to listen, learn, and deliver a summit that moves the needle on an issue that affects one-third of the world’s population. Poor nutrition is also behind half of all child deaths. “I always say beware of diplomats, and above all, beware of diplomats who pretend to be an expert because they are not. It's not our job,” he said. “Our job is to try to understand, to consult with experts and then bring a political process to the decision making level.” This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Tokyo’s N4G Summit in 2021 raised a record amount. We’re in a different environment now with official development aid cuts from Europe and the United States. Do you have any concerns about reaching your goals for N4G? It's true that the context is challenging, to say the least. When a diplomat says something is challenging, it means impossible. And I'd say indeed the situation has changed since 2021. We have a high-intensity war being waged in Europe, which unleashed not only a regional crisis in Europe, but a security crisis, but also a worldwide food crisis, which induced inflation, and hence a financial crisis. … We are paying back the debt of COVID-19. So there is financial resource scarcity, but we believe that there are a few stones that have been left unturned in Tokyo. We are looking at what we call “moral money,” which means working with pension funds and investment funds. I have published, with the executive director of the Access to Nutrition initiative, Greg Garrett, a piece about where we can find financing for nutrition. We've sent a clear message to the multilateral development banks that we count on them to help us — to channel funds to local SMEs to local producers. Because nutrition is not only about food; it's also about the local economy. It produces wealth, it creates jobs. [Investing in nutrition] has an impact of factor 23. It means that when you plant $100 million in nutrition-specific or nutrition-sensitive development policies, you get $2.3 billion in returns — that is wealth that can be redistributed or reinvested. And yet, only 1% of official development aid is nutrition-specific. Why? So there is the challenge to make governments and donors aware that it works. Our strategy is very much involving the development banks. And I'm sure that it's music to the bankers’ ears that you can get so much cost-effectiveness through that kind of investment. So why is it so difficult to raise money for nutrition? The international nutrition community seems to have a magic wand in its hands, but is struggling to brand it, to market it on the market of development policies. I often point at the fact that there is too much theology of nutrition — experts fighting experts. Every nutrition policy approach deserves to be taken into consideration. This shouldn't be a battle between churches. We need to team up. And that’s exactly what we are trying to do at N4G. The second challenge, in terms of branding … is that nutrition-driven policies are so wide that “nutrition” itself feels a bit restrictive. Perhaps we should name it differently. Perhaps we should name it “super development” through nutrition, given its incredible impact, its potential. People tend to consider that nutrition is about baby bottles and fortifiers. It's not only that. It's gender, it's climate, it's crisis resilience, it's social protection and health. It's innovation, it's finance. It’s education. Sending boys to cooking classes can be transformational. Super cost-effective, by the way. The third challenge is catching the interest of governments. On that, I count, of course, on [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron and the mobilization of my government. We are using the full strength of our diplomatic apparatus. We have 600 schools abroad, in every country, which will beat the drum everywhere, to organize workshops. And France will use its soft power to push for nutrition. Do you have a financial goal in mind? Yes. What is the figure? I will not tell you. Of course I have one in mind. But who would say? And this can evolve. What I sense is a lot of enthusiasm. I've been talking to banks who show a lot of interest. I'm getting figures which are still confidential, because it is up to them to decide when they come up with their pledging. But I'm quite happy about what I hear. You have publicly stated that MDBs, relative to their size and their capacity to give, actually give quite little. How are you getting them on board? MDBs do not tell governments what they have to do. They answer the call of their member states, and they try to finance it. Of course, they have a mandate, but agriculture [and] health are generally in the scope of development, so it's not a big deal to have them finance nutrition if somebody asks them. So we need governments to ask them. But we also need the banks to tell governments that they are available. It's also a matter of raising the governments’ interest. “We've sent a clear message to the multilateral development banks that we count on them to help us — to channel funds to local SMEs to local producers. Because nutrition is not only about food; it's also about the local economy.” --— Brieuc Pont Second, there's a large network that is hosted in Paris. It's called FiCS, Finance in Common, and it's a platform which gathers 300-plus banks. And so we have access to all of these folks to spread the good news, the gospel of nutrition. And that's what we are doing. The AFD, the French Development Agency, is vice chair of the [N4G] summit with yours truly being the chair. And it's a fantastic cooperation that we have, of course, and working hard so all the folks can pledge again. My message: N4G is in four months now, so everyone needs to start designing pledges. If those pledges are ready, be my guest if you want to announce them, because we need to encourage others as well. As for individuals — I want to pay a special tribute to Spencer Kirk, who runs Kirk Humanitarian. He came to Paris to deliver the first N4G pledge by giving $125 million [in May] and that was really an incredible gesture and very encouraging for us. But now we also need to bring public finance into this. You recently announced a “troika” in which the past, present, and next Olympic host governments work together to ensure continuity between N4G Summits. Currently it comprises Japan, France, and the United States, which will host in 2028. Why is that needed? The problem with Nutrition for Growth was the potential lack of coherence, because you're asked to organize a summit. You realize the Olympics comes with a footnote, which is N4G. The troika helps you get ready. … It's an issue of legacy. I'm sure, for instance, for Australia [which is set to host the Olympics in 2032] and those who come afterwards, it will be very useful to get involved progressively, eight years ahead of your summit, to start thinking about what are the new things you want to bring. And when you have passed the baton, what is the legacy you want to preserve? So that's the idea of the troika: Maintaining coherence. And also that between summits, civil society has somebody to talk to. Regarding big food corporations, how do you ensure that they're involved while balancing the concerns of nutrition experts who don’t think they should be part of the conversation, given some of their track records? We have a philosophy: We believe food shouldn't be about poisoning ourselves. And therefore we expect companies to act accordingly. To be part of N4G or even to deliver a pledge for N4G, there are certain rules that you need to comply with, and these are being defined as we speak. Clearly there are red lines. For instance, you can't be under U.N. sanctions. You can't produce weapons or alcohol or cigarettes. You cannot aggressively market breastmilk substitutes. So there are limits that we have set, and I have been given the responsibility of protecting them and making sure that every member and every pledger at Nutrition for Growth respects those principles and these rules of engagement. But that doesn't mean we can't talk to the private sector. There are two ways to work. You can work according to your dreams and take decisions as if you were living in a dream world. In that case, when you wake up, it's going to be a sort of hard landing. Or you can try to look at the world as it is, and take decisions accordingly. I believe a diplomat's job is more on that second option. And in that case, if you're looking at the world that is as it is, well, the private sector is there. One of our partners, the Paris Peace Forum, will organize a meeting in Paris a few days before the summit, which will bring together all those who want to talk about business — including business, civil society, governments. We should make a tagline which will be “Nutrition: everyone's business.” The idea will be to applaud those who are compliant and deliver, who are on the good side of history; to encourage those who have made efforts but are not there yet, but need credit or deserve credit; and to tell those who do not at all comply or don't seem to care — but if they don't care, I suspect they won't be there. But if they care and perhaps they have the greenwashing temptation, we'll tell them, “Well, you don't qualify. And look, it pays off. You are running a serious reputational risk, because at some point the consumers will go after you.” If we don't do that, that will mean that the private sector will think that we don't care about what they do. And we do care. And we keep a watchful eye, and if there's need to regulate, we will. The [rules of engagement at N4G] come from a dialog between stakeholders which are in the governance of the summit. They come from Tokyo, which had an agreement on principles of engagement. And hence the troika. We pass it from summit to summit, and then we see how we can improve it. Nutrition is evidence-based. We look at the impact of things. And if you set boundaries, constraints, which are too tight, you might lose a lot of people you don't want to lose. So you have to be sometimes realistic, but without being naive. Have you changed the way that you eat or shop for food since you've been in this role? Totally. I have diabetes. Like so many millions of people I have to look at what I'm eating. But since I've started in this mission, I've lost 20 pounds. I don't know if it's because I'm more aware — I look at what I eat, and I've tried things like intermittent fasting, and I feel much better. I download cool apps where AI identifies what you're eating and tells you the [nutritional] score. Also that’s what I also like about this — there's plenty of innovation and great ideas. My daughters teach me much more about nutrition than I teach them. I see that this generation is pretty savvy on that. And it's important to encourage food labeling, and these cool apps — you go to the supermarket and you can scan the products that you're buying. I have this one called Yuka where you scan the label and it can give you an idea of what you’re eating. Anything else you want civil society, MDBs, or countries to know on the road to N4G? The main message is let's get it done. This is transformational. We can make a difference. But for that, we need to do this seriously. Start doing the homework, prepare your pledges, and let's make it happen.