How Spain’s small aid budget makes a big impact as global nutrition funding shrinks

Spain’s cost-effective, policy-driven nutrition aid model offers key lessons as global funding declines. Nutrition Insight speaks to an expert at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to learn about the country’s approach to nutrition security. 

Hundreds of US officials are condemning the termination of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), worried about the gap it leaves for other global powers to fill. 

Santiago Ripoll, research fellow at IDS, tells us: “The demise of USAID is a catastrophe. Many will die of malnutrition because of it. Many more will be undernourished, and famines will be more likely.  The US spent £66 billion (US$85 billion) on aid in 2023, and Spain spent £3.8 billion (US$4.9 billion) in the same year. Germany was the second largest aid donor, behind the US, with £36.7 million (US$47.3 billion) — just over half the US investment.”

“Because failures in many sectors cause malnutrition, not only basic nutrition interventions (health, water, and sanitation, women’s health and contraception, disease prevention, agriculture, and so on), the broad-based cuts will have radical deleterious effects in nutrition outcomes across the world,” he warns.

Political link to malnutrition

IDS alumni and nutritionist Fiorella Paredes explains the importance of knowing how politics is connected to nutrition outcomes.

It has been typical to view nutrition solely as a health concern, but this perspective ignores the social and political factors that play a role in inadequate nutrition.Historically, she says it has been common to see nutrition exclusively as a health issue. However, this approach overlooks the social and political elements that contribute to poor nutrition. It is necessary to outline the political causes of malnutrition while setting up reliable and objective data.

“Politics is often centered around the allocation of resources and different actors’ power in shaping those decisions. Making those links between political decisions, power imbalances, and malnutrition outcomes is crucial,” Paredes stresses.

She asks us to imagine an increase in malnutrition rates in rural areas of Central America. “If those ultimate political causes are not explored, you might think high malnutrition rates are a medical problem to be solved with a micronutrient intervention.”

“However, these rates can come as a result of lack of access to land, free trade agreements that undermine local production, market failures in which farmers do not get a fair share of income from their production, sale, and advertising of junk food near schools, lack of public investment in water and sanitation or health promotion, and so on.”

Ripoll stresses that nutrition-sensitive interventions should clearly define the rights of people and the responsibilities of governments and corporations in ensuring food security.If these causes are not addressed, she believes it is likely that cases of malnourished children will recur. “Understanding the political causes of malnutrition gives us tools to address it sustainably,” she underscores. 

More than a nutrition approach 

Ripoll stresses that nutrition-sensitive interventions should clearly define the rights of people and the responsibilities of governments and corporations in ensuring food security.

He points to Spain’s success in improving global nutrition despite a smaller aid budget. Rather than spreading resources thinly, Spain prioritized long-term policy interventions that strengthened food and market systems in recipient countries.

Through the Spanish National Aid Agency (AECID), funding supported rural development, food security, and governance reforms, ensuring that aid had lasting effects beyond short-term nutrition programs.

“Considering recipient countries’ food and market systems when co-designing interventions with recipient countries has always been a priority, and much of the work of the AECID has been supporting rural development and food security as much as nutrition-specific activities,” says Ripoll.

“The approach to nutrition sits under a comprehensive framework that includes productive aspects and climate change: strengthening the productive capacity of producers at a local level and promoting local food systems.”