“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question often posed to children from an early age, encouraging them to dream big. For Joya, a bright and ambitious student from Bangladesh, her answer is rooted in a passion to create change: she dreams of becoming a lawyer. Yet, her aspirations are shadowed by the harsh reality faced by millions of children in Asia, who never get the right start to reach their maximum potential.
Nearly 150 million children under the age of five are stunted worldwide, with over half of them living in Asia. In South Asia alone, the prevalence of stunting is over 30%, with rates of wasting at 14%, and nearly half of women of reproductive age suffer from anaemia. These figures reveal not just undernourished populations, but a massive loss of human capital. Every year, Asia loses over USD 346 billion to undernutrition, which is nearly 1% of its gross national income.
This intense burden highlights a fundamental truth: nutrition is the foundation of human capital. When children are well-nourished, they can achieve their full cognitive and physical potential, resulting in a more productive workforce with better income, which pays more taxes and increases a country’s capacity to contribute towards essential services like quality education and improved healthcare. An investment in nutrition is an investment in a country’s future workforce, economic stability, and social resilience. It is also an investment that yields one of the highest returns of USD 23 for every dollar spent on nutrition interventions. Yet, despite its proven impact, nutrition remains an under-prioritised and under-funded development area.
The global community invests less than 1% of official development assistance in nutrition, leaving a critical funding gap. In 2025, the development sector witnessed a sharp decline in global bilateral investments, with a 44% aid cut to nutrition programs globally, putting millions of children at risk of severe malnutrition.
Philanthropies and impact investors have a crucial role to play. They must move beyond the perception of nutrition being an “aid” and start looking at it as an “investment”. They must see nutrition not merely as a health intervention but as a catalyst for unlocking human capital across all sectors. Every major development priority—be it education, gender equity, climate resilience, health, livelihoods, or social justice—is foundational on getting the right nutrition.
Whether investing in education, climate change, healthcare delivery, or urban food systems, strategic opportunities exist to integrate nutrition at the core of development efforts. Building resilient communities capable of withstanding climate shocks, fostering gender equality, and advancing economic growth—all starts with nourishing the future workforce. Designing development programs with a “nutrition lens” multiplies impact across sectors—building stronger, healthier, and more inclusive societies.
Nutrition International has been at the forefront of this agenda of unpacking the multidimensional nature of nutrition. For over three decades, we have been bringing evidence-based, low-cost, high-impact, scalable solutions to millions of vulnerable populations across Asia and Africa. Supported by the Government of Canada, Nutrition International has a bold plan to mobilise USD 1 billion to improve nutrition for one billion people by 2030. Being Canada’s largest nutrition partner, combined with decades of technical expertise, we are uniquely positioned to support impact investors and development leaders to bridge the funding gap, embed nutrition into multi-sectoral strategies, and accelerate progress toward sustainable development goals.
AVPN’s community of social investors have the opportunity to amplify this agenda—leveraging networks like the Nutrition Leadership Programme, and their collective knowledge and capital for transformative change. Investing in nutrition is an investment in a nation’s human capital and economic growth. Unlocking capital for nutrition is a strategic necessity for building healthier and resilient communities, in Asia and beyond. Our collective mobilisation of resources today will determine whether Joya’s and millions of other children’s aspirations become reality.
