Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance commits £1m in pro bono support to the fight against undernutrition

Clifford Chance will be the official pro bono legal partner for Nutrition for Growth (NfG), a new initiative which aims to prevent undernutrition, the largest single contributor to child mortality worldwide.  NfG is being spearheaded by the UK Government, the Federal Government of Brazil and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and will draw on funding and support from a wide range of other international organisations.  Through the arrangement, Clifford Chance will provide in principle £1m of pro bono support.  This will include advice from around the firm's global network to participating governments, NGOs and private sector businesses on the development of the NfG strategy and its implementation.

Malcolm Sweeting, Clifford Chance Senior Partner explains, "Through our community and pro bono work around the world, many of our lawyers have been able to witness first-hand the effects of undernutrition which ruins lives and robs people of their potential.  Nutrition for Growth is an important initiative that we believe has the potential to have a real impact.  We are delighted to be involved and hope that by bringing our extensive global legal expertise to bear that we can support the success of this programme."

As well as advice on NfG strategy and aspects of local implementation, Clifford Chance will act as Ambassadors for NfG,  helping to spread the word amongst the firm's impressive client base.  Malcolm Sweeting adds, "We work on many pro bono and volunteering projects jointly with our clients and we hope that NfG will join that list."

Jamie Cooper-Hohn, CIFF founder notes, "This is an outstanding contribution from Clifford Chance. Tackling undernutrition strategically will not only save millions of lives and enable far greater life chances, but has the capacity to add up to 11% to annual GNP growth. The Nutrition for Growth transformational potential requires the public, private and third sectors to come together and act in unison - Clifford Chance have taken a leadership role to that effect."

Undernutrition is the largest single contributor to child mortality worldwide, underlying one third of deaths amongst children under five. It is also responsible for the loss of billions of dollars in productivity, in effect stunting not only citizens, but also the competitiveness and economic growth of high-burden countries.