DELIVERING FOR NUTRITION IN SOUTH ASIA: TOWARDS IMPACT AT SCALE – CONCEPT NOTE

CONCEPT NOTE

Background

South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge.

Although there is a strong evidence base on effective interventions to improve nutrition outcomes, evidence of their implementation and scale‑up in real‑world settings remains inconsistent. Success depends not only on having proven solutions but also on systems, leadership, sustainable financing, and accountability mechanisms to support widespread delivery.

As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development nears and as South Asia navigates the challenges of climate change, food system disruptions, and economic instability, the need for effective, scalable, and sustainable nutrition action has never been more urgent.

About the conference

This year’s conference focuses on solutions to address nutrition challenges at scale. This conference will help South Asia move from commitment to coordinated delivery — from evidence to impact.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), together with CGIAR and a range of co-hosts from across the region and globe will bring together experts, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, donors, and other stakeholders from diverse sectors to explore scalable nutrition-focused solutions and pathways to impact. The hybrid conference will take place from December 2-4, 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal and online.

Delivering for Nutrition 2025 will be the fifth regional conference on implementation research and the eighth overall. Previous Delivering for Nutrition implementation research conferences were held in 2016, 2019 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Theme: Towards Impact at Scale

This conference will prioritize solutions to improve nutrition outcomes at scale. The focus will be on interventions, policies, and programs that are at different stages on the pathway to scaling impact:

• Operational at scale, demonstrating measurable outcomes/impacts and sustainability;
• Not scaled yet but have a roadmap showing potential for scaling;
• Generating data and insights on implementation and adaptations to inform scaling and impact in realworld settings;
• Leveraging policy to drive transformative change in diets and nutrition outcomes at scale in diverse
  systems.

Emphasizing a multi-sectoral and systems approach, the conference will feature research and dialogue to enhance the reach and effectiveness of nutrition interventions.

Topical areas

The six topical areas below recognize that diverse systems must be leveraged to deliver actions for nutrition impact at scale. Building on the Nutrition for Growth Summit, D4N2025 will focus both on major systems/sectors and on areas that need attention to strengthen nutrition impact at scale. For examples of the systems referenced below, please see the "Conference Topical Areas" section on the Call for Abstracts page.

Topical areas include:

• Health systems
• Agrifood systems
• Social protection systems
• Education systems
• Market systems
• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems

Across all systems, cross-cutting areas include:

• Measurement, monitoring and evaluation
• Enabling environments that support the delivery of nutrition actions at scale
• Equity considerations: intersectionality, gender and social inclusion
• Impacts of climate and other shocks

Participants

The conference will convene academics, implementers, development partners, civil society, media, and policymakers from or working in the eight South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) to share and discuss evidence and experiences on getting to impact at scale to improve nutrition in South Asia.