The Child Nutrition Fund
Scaling up policies, programmes and supplies to end child undernutrition.
About
The Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) is a UNICEF-led coordination and financing mechanism that helps countries scale up sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child and maternal undernutrition in high-need countries. It supports governments to accelerate high-impact actions that address stunting, wasting and anaemia among children and women. The CNF works to help governments fulfil their national nutrition commitments and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
How the CNF works
The CNF provides a unified solution to three key challenges: fragmented donor funding, limited incentives for domestic investment, and insufficient support for local manufacturing of essential nutrition supplies. It brings this together through three financing windows:
- Programme window – Coordinates global investments and supports delivery of high-impact nutrition actions, especially in countries with limited financial capacity.
- Match window – Doubles domestic investments from national governments to scale access to life-saving and preventive nutrition supplies such as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), multiple micronutrient supplements, and small-quantity lipid-based nutrition supplements.
Supplier window – Strengthens local supply chains by helping manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries access financing to produce essential nutrition supplies where they are most needed.
Towards impact at scale
By 2030, the CNF aims to support global efforts to reach over 320 million children and women every year, including 70 million women with maternal nutrition services and 230 million children with prevention services. It also aims to ensure that 20 million children annually receive treatment for life-threatening undernutrition.
The CNF is led by UNICEF and an international steering committee, underpinned by transparent reporting and annual results. It empowers national systems, catalyses domestic financing and strengthens local markets for nutrition supplies – helping build lasting, country-owned solutions to end child undernutrition.
Visit childnutritionfund.org for more information.
