Our health and nutrition work brings new understanding and action on health tackling epidemics, antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases. We generate new evidence and analysis on nutrition issues including dietary transition, globalisation of food systems, and responding to the ways that marginalisation and inequity drive high child malnutrition rates. Our focus is on bringing a critical social science perspective to how people, especially the poor, address their health and nutrition-related needs and on how governments and other groups influence the performance of these sectors.

There are five overall themes that our Health and Nutrition cluster focuses on:

• Understanding the political economy of health and nutrition (mapping knowledge and narratives; politics and governance; individual capacities and resources
• Engaging with health and nutrition markets in low and middle-income countries
• The politics of regulation, health and nutrition in the new knowledge economy
• Malnutrition and the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases
• Health system responses to major outbreaks and (re)emerging infections.

Across these themes, through research and engagement our work aims to:

• Understand and share how people address their health and nutrition needs in a rapidly changing context
• Identify the range of stakeholders including government, private organisations and civil society with an interest in meeting these needs
• Support different sectors and groups to scale up innovative interventions aimed at substantially increasing availability and access to safe, appropriate and affordable food, nutrition, drugs, health and sanitation services
• Help hold these actors to account for delivery at scale and contributes to mutual learning between countries.