Is global alliance for improved nutrition an NGO?

Rema Nagarajan
01 February 2013, 08:00 PM IST

The World Health Organisation's standing committee on Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) deferring the accreditation of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) as an NGO (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-30/india/36635517_1_food-industry-gain-global-alliance) has raised the issue of conflict of interest in NGOs' ties with businesses.

"GAIN is a new type of public private entity which claims to works to tackle malnutrition - but its work seems to focus on opening up markets for its 600 partner companies (including Danone, the world's second largest baby food company, Mars, Pepsi, and Coca Cola)," said a statement issued by International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), a global network which aims to strengthen independent, transparent and effective controls on the marketing of the baby feeding industry.

So, what is an NGO? How would an organisation qualify to be an NGO? There seems to be no single definition. But there are some elements that figure in the common understanding of what an NGO is. It operates independently of government. It has to be a not-for-profit organisation. It delivers resources or serves some political or social purpose. One of the definitions is also that NGOs by definition are non-commercial.

GAIN would have difficulty passing off as an NGO even going by some of these common stipulations. It is not independent of government since by 2009, it calls itself an "alliance of governments, international organisations, the private sector and civil society". GAIN is not entirely non-commercial since for its business partners, including the biggest food multinationals, it has been working hard to help them enter "new and emerging markets".

It does deliver resources and is ostensibly engaged in the social cause of "increasing access to missing nutrients in diets" so that people could be stronger and healthier. But GAIN's efforts does not seem to be about malnutrition from chronic hunger. After all, starving millions is about unequal distribution of food in a world which produces more food than it can consume. "Every day, millions of people around the world eat only the bare minimum of food to keep themselves alive. Every night, they go to bed not certain whether there will be enough food to eat tomorrow," says the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations about global hunger. GAIN's vision is tied to fortifying food with "missing nutrients" with the help of global food companies and selling it to people 'at low cost'.

By its own admission, the GAIN Business Alliance, chaired by Unilever, helps conduct surveys to help member companies assess feeding practices and gauge the market for complementary and supplementary food. The Business Alliance wants to drive "market-based solutions" to addressing malnutrition worldwide. The 5^th GAIN business alliance forum in November 2011 included a session titled "Navigating the Policy Environment". The session was explained thus on the website: "Regulation has a direct impact on the success of products on the market and thus, contributes to defining businesses' strategy and innovation agenda. What issues do companies face when entering new markets in the developing world? How can development agencies help businesses navigate regulation in new target markets?" There were also sessions that were meant to help "identify ways to develop business at the Base of the Pyramid" which in plain speak is to identify ways to sell to and create markets among the poorest people in the world.

This seems to lend credence to IBFAN's charge that GAIN's application for official relations status with WHO came just as WHO is to start work on the guidelines for the marketing of complementary foods, a key policy issue that GAIN is keen to influence. IBFAN states that organisations like GAIN are often front organisations for businesses, but describe themselves in different ways, sometimes as public-private partnerships (PPPs) and sometimes as Alliances. "These bodies often have multiple purposes, and alongside their public health objectives, they assist commercial companies in the creation of markets for their products."

Member States of the WHO have sought greater clarity on WHO's conflicts of interest procedures and more caution in its relations with the private sector. The Director General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, has stressed the importance of protecting WHO's 'norms and standards' setting process. There has been a call from several quarters for more effective policies to protect international policy making process from undue influence of the private commercial sector. It was in this context that GAIN's NGO accreditation was deferred.