Dr. David Nabarro, a physician and lifelong advocate for public health, has passed away at the age of 75.
Called “a giant in the world of food security, nutrition advocacy, and global health,” by Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps, Nabarro was deeply passionate about ending hunger and malnutrition.
In 2009, Nabarro was appointed as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition. The following year, he became the first Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, where he worked to reduce childhood undernutrition and stunting in the first 1,000 days of life. Four years later, more than 50 countries had joined the Movement and endorsed nutrition-related laws and policies.
“David inspired generations to act and put nutrition at the center of development,” writes Luz Maria De Regil, Director of Nutrition and Food Safety at the World Health Organization.
In 2018, Nabarro was named the World Food Prize laureate for his global leadership on maternal and child undernutrition.
He also helped lead the response to some of the greatest public health crises. Throughout his career in the United Nations system he tackled diseases including malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, and bird flu. In 2014, Nabarro provided strategic guidance to contain the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. And at the start of 2020, Nabarro was named one of six Special Envoys on COVID-19, providing advice and disseminating information on the coronavirus pandemic. For this service, King Charles III knighted him in 2023.
Nabarro’s commitment to service began at an early age. At 17, he spent nine months running Youth Action York, a volunteer movement that aims to improve the lives of local poor, elderly, and disabled people. And shortly after receiving his medical degree, he joined Save the Children in northern Iraq, where he provided health services to children affected by war.
Most recently, Nabarro served as the Strategic Director of the 4SD Foundation, a social enterprise that he co-founded to help emerging leaders push for equity, justice, and regenerative futures. In 2018, 4SD was invited to curate Food Systems Dialogues, designed for diverse stakeholders to explore priorities for the future of food and agriculture systems.
Nabarro saw these dialogues as a way to foster collaboration among different groups: “Even if people have radical disagreements, if they come together in a space where they are respected…they will form a coherent whole,” he told Food Tank.
Since Nabarro’s passing, friends and colleagues are remembering not only his wisdom, but the generosity, warmth and conviction that he displayed throughout his life. “His strong voice, leadership and genuine passion in these strange times will be sorely missed,” says Gunhild Stordalen, Co-Founder of EAT. “No one can fill his shoes, but we can keep walking the path he cleared with such courage and conviction.”
Nabarro is survived by his wife Florence; his children, Tom, Ollie, Polly, Josie, Lucas; and seven grandchildren.
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Photo courtesy of DFID – UK Department for International Development
