A nutritious diet is crucial for children's learning, human capital expansion, and adult performance. Early nutrition investment is one of the most cost-effective development initiatives and comes with significant financial incentives. Obesity and undernutrition are major contributors to the Human Capital Index, which measures human capital. In low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs), this index illustrates a dismal outlook for future economic productivity; the majority of African countries score below 0.40, while South Asia's score is around 0.48. This indicates that children in these regions will only be 40 percent or 48 percent productive as adults, respectively. The World Bank identified six key global issues in its goal of a society that is free from poverty and a habitable planet; food and nutrition security is one of them. The analysis identified three interconnected action areas: enhancing Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) crisis management, developing innovative cross-sectoral nutrition solutions, and creating low-emission, climate-resilient food systems while engaging private sector resources. There is a significant relationship between climate change, undernutrition, and obesity, which affects health and development, extremely impacting the world's most vulnerable communities and nations.

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Under a high climate change scenario, chronic malnutrition effects are expected to rise by 62% in South Asia and 23% in Sub-Saharan Africa by the 2050s. Both underweight and wasting are more than 50% more likely to occur during a drought. By decreasing the accessibility and availability of fresh food items and causing a dietary shift toward less costly ultra-processed foods (UPFs), climate change also makes obesity worse. There are two ways that funding climate adaptation and mitigation might improve nutrition outcomes and address climate-related problems. For instance, Madagascar has incorporated some climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives into phase two of its Improving Nutrition Outcomes. Using the Multiphase Programmatic Approach, with assistance from the World Bank, Indonesia has set up an integrated and climate-responsive monitoring and evaluation system to better understand the connections between nutrition and climate.

Over ten years, 2025-2034, scaling up a particular set of evidence-based nutrition treatments to 90% coverage will cost an additional $128 billion (discounted), or around $13 billion annually. This adds up to $13 for each expectant mother and $17 for each child under five each year. In addition to this amount, an estimated $6.3 billion is already spent each year to maintain status quo coverage. Furthermore, $52 billion (40 percent) will be made available for the first five years (2025–29), and $76 billion (60 percent) will be made available for the next five years (2030–34). More than 77% ($98 billion) of the $128 billion for low- and lower-middle-income countries has already been allocated. Sub-Saharan Africa needs $34 billion, East Asia and the Pacific $19 billion, the Middle East and North Africa $16 billion, and South Asia $43 billion due to the diverse experiences of starvation in these nations. With these measures, 6.2 million fatalities and 980,000 stillbirths among children under five could be averted in 2025–2034. These could prevent nearly 7 million cases of low birth weight (LBW), 144 million cases of maternal anemia, 77 million cases of anemia in children under five, 47 million episodes of wasting, and 27 million cases of stunting in children turning five, according to the World Health Organization. This is expected to surpass the current estimates of 17.5 million fewer stunted children in 2034, and also, another 85 million children may be exclusively fed breast milk. Despite the significance of these investments, nutrition outcomes can be improved by optimizing current spending.

Cash transfers to low-income families combined with nutrition education, vitamin A supplementation, small-quantity lipid-based nutrients (SQ-LNS) for children, micronutrient powders, and preventive zinc supplementation for children (although there are at present no feasible platforms for scaling up preventive zinc), intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) and multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) for pregnant women, delayed cord clamping during childbirth, and kangaroo mother care (KMC) could be a cost-effective package of interventions, depending on country-specific epidemiological indicators, policy, and implementation contexts. Other interventions can be added when these are expanded and as funding permits. However, each country must tailor the most cost-effective combination of these interventions through the social protection or health sectors, including possible delivery channels, and supplement them with investments like sanitation, nutrition education, and biofortification through the agriculture sector.

Although it is more difficult to measure with the evidence currently available, the funding requirements for obesity prevention policies are substantially lower. Food labeling, mass media campaigns, mobile apps, and advertising legislation are estimated to cost between $3.4 and $3.6 purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita annually, according to case studies conducted in South Africa, Mexico, and Bulgaria. The case studies indicate that between 2020 and 2050, economic progress with major positive effects on labor market productivity will yield an average of $4 to $5 PPP for every $1 PPP invested. Moreover, by imposing a tax on unhealthy foods, among other fiscal measures to combat obesity, these countries may be able to raise more money for themselves. Such levies are anticipated to generate up to $700 million in revenue each year in Colombia, for instance, which might subsequently be used to fund nutritional improvement. With a benefit-cost ratio of 23, it is estimated that the economic advantages of fully scaling up interventions to address undernutrition will rise to $2.4 trillion. It is projected that for every $1 invested, addressing stunted growth will yield a $23 return. With an estimated $20 trillion in economic and social costs from overweight and obesity and $21 trillion in lost productivity due to undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, the economic benefits of investing in child and maternal nutrition alone far outweigh the costs of inaction, which total about $41 trillion over a ten-year period. In order to get more nutrition with the money we have, we must both raise expenditure efficiency and boost financing for nutrition.