Engineers Without Borders International has secured support from Open Philanthropy to enable us to combine the collective expertise in the global Engineers Without Borders movement to design a global innovation programme tackling a major global health issue: malnutrition. 

Malnutrition affects billions of people across the world. 

• 2.2 billion adults and 38.9 million children under 5 are overweight or obese [1]. Half of all men and women living with obesity are located in a handful of countries; most notably USA, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Egypt, and Turkey, and the highest rates of obesity are experienced in the Pacific Islands [2]. Alongside the immediate physical and mental health impacts of being overweight or obese, people affected are also at increased risk of developing diet-related noncommunicable diseases (e.g. heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers). 
• The greatest number of people with obesity now live in Lower Middle Income Countries, where the double burden of undernutrition continues, and systems are severely under prepared and equipped [2]. It is estimated that most of the world’s population now live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight [3].
• At the same time, over 800 million people worldwide are suffering from hunger and as many as 2.4 billion people lack regular access to adequate food [4]. Globally, 149.2 million children under 5 (22% of all children) are stunted (low height for weight) and will suffer lifelong consequences to their physical and cognitive development and health as a result. The highest number of people that are undernourished live across Central and Southern Asia, and Africa. [5]
• Additionally, so-called ‘hidden hunger’ – a result of micronutrient deficiencies – affects an estimated 2 billion+ people regardless of whether they are over, under or at healthy weight. Micronutrient deficiencies are not always visible and impact on all bodily functions; production of enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development particularly during periods of significant growth (early childhood, adolescence, pregnancy) [6].

At an individual level, malnutrition impacts physical and mental health and wellbeing and increases the risk of diet-related disease and mortality. Globally, rates are increasing in most regions and more than a quarter of all adult deaths each year are associated with dietary issues [1].

But there are also societal impacts. Malnutrition impacts on people’s capacity to learn, to work, and to participate. Subsequently malnutrition impacts on societal function and the economy (e.g. through increased healthcare costs and reduced productivity). It is estimated that the total economic gains to society from investing in nutrition could reach US$5.7 trillion a year by 2030 and US$10.5 trillion a year by 2050 [1].

Equally, food production has a significant impact on planetary health. Global food demand generates more than a third (35%) of all greenhouse emissions [1]; is the primary driver of nitrogen and phosphorus loading of the environment polluting waterways and causing eutrophication [7]; and accounts for 38% of global land surface use [8], 70% of freshwater withdrawals [9] and 90% of deforestation [10].

The opportunity for innovation

Lack of affordable, year round access to a balanced nutritious diet is the primary driver of malnutrition. Diets worldwide are far from being healthy and have not improved over the last decade. [1]

Despite some variation between regions, no country meets recommendations for healthy diets nor is on track to meet nutrition targets. Lower-income countries continue to have the lowest intakes of key health-promoting foods such as fruits and vegetables and the highest levels of underweight people. Higher-income countries have the highest intakes of foods with high health and environmental impacts, including red meat, processed meat and dairy, and the highest levels of overweight and obesity. [1]

Additionally, food security is deteriorating, impacted by: the climate crisis; competing land use demands, biodiversity loss and deteriorating soil health; the ongoing implications of the COVID-19 pandemic; and geopolitical impacts on global food prices. 

Changing the outlook for future generations demands innovation.

Across the global Engineers Without Borders network we are already mobilising upwards of 14,000 people with high quality skills and expertise to address acute issues of social and environmental injustice. We believe that the innovation knowhow of the Engineers Without Borders movement is well positioned to drive traction towards tackling malnutrition in a truly global and systemic way.

With this support from Open Philanthropy we’re bringing our global movement together over the coming months to develop a programme built from our strengths and leveraging our diverse collective insights from around the world.

Right now, we’re recruiting the team to design the programme so that we’re ready to mobilise investment to launch it. 

• Programme design team: “How can answers be found?”
  We’re looking for representatives from across the EWB network to design this new programme together. This role will be complementary to relevant current roles within a national EWB (not instead of) with the development phase anticipated to run May to July 2023. Funding is available to bring the team together in-person for a design sprint. 
• Research analyst: “What are the roots of this issue?”
  We’re looking for someone with exceptional research capabilities to write, review and hone the innovation brief for this new global innovation programme focused on addressing the issue of malnutrition. We can provide support in securing experts to provide insight to the brief and you will be supported and guided by the programme design team. 
• Programme review panel: “What additional expertise is needed?”
  We’re looking for additional individuals to support the programme development phase by forming an advisory panel to provide feedback and insights useful to developing a robust, meaningful global innovation programme. 

Application deadline: Sunday 16 April 2023, midnight (UTC+0/GMT).

Find out more and apply. 

References:

[1] https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2021-global-nutrition-report/executive-summary/ 

[2] https://data.worldobesity.org/publications/World-Obesity-Atlas-2022-updated.pdf 

[3] https://www.worldobesity.org/about/about-obesity/prevalence-of-obesity 

[4] https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2

[5] https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment 

[6] https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency 

[7] https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html

[8] https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/ 

[9] https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress#:~:text=Globally%2C%2070%20percent%20of%20freshwater,per%20100%20grams%20of%20protein

[10] https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/cop26-agricultural-expansion-drives-almost-90-percent-of-global-deforestation/en