“My fight against malnutrition”

Interview with Michel Lescanne, founder of Nutriset.

Sorting peanuts, which are used in the manufacture of Plumpy’nut, at Hilina, Nutriset Group’s Ethiopian partner.

President and founder of the Nutriset Group and co-inventor of Plumpy’Nut, the first RUTF, Michel Lescanne has just published his memoirs with Eyrolles, with the help of journalist Christian Troubé. Here, he answers our questions.

Alain Boinet:

You’ve just published a book entitled “Mon combat contre la malnutrition” (“My fight against malnutrition”). When and why did you start this fight?

Michel Lescanne:

I founded Nutriset in 1986 on the basis of intuition and determination. As an agricultural engineer, I was convinced that the food industry had solutions to offer to help solve what was then known as “world hunger”. During my studies, I chose as the subject of my dissertation a study on the manufacture of a nutritious cookie for malnourished children in what was then known as the “Third World”. The skepticism of my university jury only strengthened my resolve to succeed. And then there’s my family background. In Normandy, my father ran a dairy cooperative, which later became the Nova Group. So, from childhood, I was immersed in this world. Very early on, reading the works of René Dumont and Josué de Castro helped me to deepen and enrich my objective: to feed these children in distress. It was immediately obvious to me that this would be achieved by setting up a company.

AB:

The early stages of any innovative project are often long and difficult before they succeed. What were the main stages in Nutriset’s development?

ML:

An entrepreneur’s journey is often made up of both successes and failures, from which you need to learn. At Nutriset, we had one compass: to put all our energy into designing products that could save the lives of malnourished children. And the only question we asked ourselves before making a decision was: is this going to help vulnerable populations? When you have a clear mandate, everything becomes clearer. What’s more, we weren’t acting alone, but in liaison with an ecosystem just as motivated as we were: the nutrition researchers who, in their labs, invented formulations, and the humanitarians who tested the products in the field and passed on their requests to us. It was a time of intense mobilization. This enabled us to design and scale up the first F-100 and F-75 high-energy milks, and then, in the mid-1990s, to offer the first ready-to-use therapeutic food in solid form, Plumpy’Nut. This first RUTF – and all the subsequent products targeting the various forms of malnutrition – was at the origin of a veritable revolution in the field: treatment was taken care of directly by the families affected, enabling an ever-increasing number of malnourished children to be helped. Step by step, Nutriset has been able to offer treatment and prevention solutions for children, pregnant and breast-feeding women, people suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, and products for the elderly suffering from malnutrition in France.

Plumpy’nut, the first RUTF for treating malnutrition, has given rise to a wider range of treatment and prevention products. Here is the lipid supplementation product (SQ-LNS) Enov-Nutributter, designed to improve the growth of young children.

AB:

Some twenty years ago, you set up partnerships with local companies in a dozen countries. What was your idea back then? And what stage has this project reached?

ML:

Right from the start, we had the intuition that our products had to be manufactured as close as possible to where they were needed, in the very countries where malnutrition was rife. But there was nothing obvious about that. We had to find local agri-food companies capable of manufacturing our products to the required quality standards and ensuring the supply of raw materials. Many humanitarian organizations were skeptical about the issue. With time, we were able to move forward, using the franchise or subsidiary model. This year, we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the PlumpyField network. It’s a source of great pride for us: today, almost half of Nutriset’s nutritional solutions are manufactured locally. This has enabled international humanitarian organizations and the governments of these countries to open new programs and, consequently, to come to the aid of ever more children and vulnerable people. What’s more, these industrial structures are real levers of development for their countries, structuring upstream and downstream agricultural and agro-industrial sectors. The PlumpyField network is present in around ten countries, in Africa, South-East Asia and Haiti. It is set to expand further.

A Plumpy’nut production line at Tanjaka, a member of the PlumpyField network based in Madagascar.

AB:

The world has changed a lot in the last 40 years. How do you see the fight against malnutrition today?

ML:

A great deal of progress has been made in this field over the past forty years, and Nutriset has been able to make a major contribution. Those involved in the fight against malnutrition – Unicef, the World Food Program, NGOs and local governments – now have access to easy-to-use products of recognized effectiveness. But what is sorely lacking is funding, and therefore political will. The figures are still terribly alarming! Malnutrition and its associated causes are responsible for one in two deaths among children under the age of five. If we take into account undernutrition, synonymous with wasting, stunted growth and underweight, micronutrient deficiencies affecting one child in two and one woman in three, overweight and obesity, the new scourge of our century, hundreds of millions of people are concerned! So we must not give up! The recent international Nutrition for Growth summit in Paris showed that it is possible to mobilize all players: public authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, foundations, governments and the private sector. Over 27 billion dollars were pledged to combat malnutrition. At the same time, however, we are receiving contradictory signals from the United States and other donor countries, with an incomprehensible drop in their Official Development Assistance.

The Hilina company in Addis Ababa is a long-standing partner of Nutriset. Fifty years after the great famines that ravaged Ethiopia, this company now covers almost all of the country’s nutritional needs.

AB:

Indeed, President Trump’s US administration recently cut the USAID agency and froze many programs and funding. Similarly, many countries are reducing their Official Development Assistance and humanitarian action. Does this have consequences for the Nutriset Group, your partners and anti-malnutrition programs, and how do you cope?

ML:

Our main buyers are Unicef and the World Food Programme, which are heavily affected by the US restrictions, as are the major international NGOs. Like all humanitarian actors, we observe the day-to-day fluctuations in the US administration’s decisions, notably through our American member of the PlumpyField network, the Edesia company. Like everyone else, we’ve taken note of this abrupt shift by the world’s leading lender, and the disastrous consequences it entails. With less money, we’re going to have to be imaginative and agile. For Nutriset, this means pursuing and expanding our localization policy, for example, by working with new players such as foundations, or by developing specific programs directly with governments. This is what we are doing, for example, in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.

AB:

What advice would you give to a young person wanting to get involved today?

ML:

Every generation has its own approach to the world and its own way of looking at solutions. I can see that we are entering a world where risks are multiplying, from global warming to the new rules of the geopolitical game, but I remain unfailingly optimistic about human nature’s ability to transcend itself, to give the best of itself. I would say to a young person making a commitment today that, if they have a strong conviction, they must cultivate it and be faithful to it, even in moments of doubt.

Nana Hadiza, 28, holds her twin daughters in her arms as they sit on a hospital bed at Maradi University Hospital in Niger. The twins are being treated for malnutrition with ready-to-use therapeutic foods from Nutriset. © UNICEF/UN0535873/Dejongh

AB:

How would you like to conclude this interview?

ML:

Your magazine has a beautiful title: “Humanitarian Challenges.” For forty years, I have had the good fortune to work alongside exceptional people in humanitarian agencies and NGOs. In a way, we have “grown up together.” I would therefore like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all those who have brought this commitment to life and continue to do so today. At the beginning of my book, I recall the figure of Dr. Pascal Grellety-Bosviel, a Red Cross doctor in the 1980s, who inspired me greatly, along with so many others. I would like to salute all the humanitarian workers of the new generation and tell them not to give up! The fight continues!

My Fight Against Malnutrition, by Michel Lescanne, with Christian Troubé (Editions Eyrolles, $24)

Michel Lescanne:

“Your idea has no future, sir!” Despite having just submitted his final thesis, young agricultural engineer Michel Lescanne remained faithful to his dream: to develop products to combat world hunger. In the 1970s, with famines in Africa dominating the headlines, the challenge was immense. And the obstacles were numerous. Today, the Nutriset Group, which he founded in 1986, is present wherever malnutrition is rife, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and even France, saving millions of children and adults. It is this remarkable journey that its founder recounts here.

Christian Troubé

A senior reporter specializing in international relations, Christian Troubé first became involved in humanitarian work in the early 1980s during the war in Lebanon. As a journalist, he went on to accompany various NGOs in numerous fields of action. He also served as a volunteer administrator for Action Against Hunger. Author of numerous books on humanitarian issues, he now puts his experience to work for the Nutriset Group, advising on its strategic communications.

Book review: “My Fight Against Malnutrition”

Faced with an alarming situation, “Today, one in four children under the age of five worldwide is malnourished, 165 million suffer from stunted growth, and 50 million are affected by acute malnutrition, which seriously jeopardizes their precarious existence,” Nutriset presents itself as a company specializing in the production of nutritional solutions, with a social mission to combat malnutrition.

Founded in 1986 in Normandy, it has gradually established itself as a key player in this cause on a global scale, combining innovation, scientific expertise, and humanitarian commitment.

A story to understand a struggle: the book My Fight Against Malnutrition

The book My Fight Against Malnutrition, written by Michel Lescanne, founder of Nutriset, and co-authored with journalist Christian Troubé, recounts the development of the company in fifteen chapters, while highlighting the major developments in the fight against malnutrition. This is not simply an entrepreneurial account, but a committed, innovative reflection on experience, providing valuable insight into international humanitarian dynamics. Nutriset’s expertise, as a key player in the sector, makes it a strategic tool for thinking about the challenges of tomorrow.

Raising awareness of malnutrition

It all began in the late 1980s. Michel Lescanne, the son of a dairy farmer in a Normandy cooperative, grew up immersed in the world of nutrition. From an early age, he developed a particular sensitivity to issues of access to food in humanitarian crisis situations.

At that time, child malnutrition was a silent emergency. Famines were addressed through emergency interventions that were often ill-suited to the realities on the ground. The famine in Ethiopia (1984-85), followed by the upheavals of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, highlighted the inadequacy of existing mechanisms. Therapeutic feeding remained underdeveloped, dependent on cumbersome hospital-based solutions that were difficult for the most vulnerable families to access in troubled situations.

It was in this context that, in 1993, Nutriset developed an innovation: F-75 and F-100 therapeutic milks, designed for the effective treatment of severe malnutrition in health centers. These products laid the foundations for Nutriset’s recognition in the humanitarian world.

This discovery presented many challenges for the company. The transition from an individual project in a house in Normandy to the creation of a sustainable structure involved recruiting a team, defining a clear mandate, and seeking funding.

Above all, the latter had to address a structural tension: reconciling economic imperatives with its social mission. How can a corporate status coexist with a non-profit commitment focused on products of public interest? To gain legitimacy, Nutriset must convince, forge alliances, and prove the effectiveness of its solutions. The first NGO partners, by testing the products in the field, such as Action Against Hunger in 1993 in Rwanda, actively participate in their continuous improvement.

Plumpy’Nut: an innovation that is transforming the fight against malnutrition

Since its creation, Nutriset has focused on research and innovation. The company relies on a network of scientists, nutritionists, doctors, NGOs, and laboratories to develop solutions adapted to the constraints of the field. It is within this framework that Plumpy’Nut emerged, a revolutionary Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) developed to address the limitations of therapeutic milks.

Plumpy’Nut is a ready-to-use peanut-based paste rich in calories, protein, and essential micronutrients. Stable and requiring no refrigeration, it can be administered at home without water, allowing families to participate in the healing process. This paradigm shift not only lightens the burden on medical facilities, but above all puts mothers back at the heart of the care process.

This innovation is supported by significant advocacy work with international organizations. Thanks to these efforts, Nutriset has become a partner of major United Nations agencies such as the WFP (World Food Programme) and UNICEF. These partnerships mark the institutionalization of the RUTF approach, which is becoming a global standard in the fight against severe acute malnutrition.

An international company facing contemporary challenges

In 2005, Nutriset initiated a change of scale with the creation of the PlumpyField network, which now has 11 members in several countries in the Global South. This franchise strategy enables decentralized production, closer to local needs, while promoting the autonomy of industrial partners and making a valuable contribution to the food sovereignty of the countries concerned. Today, one-third of Nutriset’s production is carried out by this network.

As part of a global response, Nutriset is also developing targeted product ranges, such as the 1000 Days program, which covers the nutritional needs of pregnant women until their children reach the age of two. These developments reflect an evolution in the socio-cultural approach to nutrition, integrating local dietary practices and family realities.

The company is part of a multi-stakeholder approach, bringing together the public and private sectors, NGOs, researchers, doctors, and nutritionists around a common goal: a coordinated fight against malnutrition, rooted in the dynamics on the ground. This transdisciplinary alliance makes it possible to adapt practices in response to successive crises (Rwanda, Syria, Sahel, etc.) and the latest scientific data.

Challenges for tomorrow: thinking about the future of humanitarian nutrition

Nutriset is part of a broader international movement, notably the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000, which aimed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and, since 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Today, with the proliferation of crises and the evolution of humanitarian response, the issues are becoming more complex.

Michel Lescanne identifies several major challenges for the coming years:

The proliferation of conflicts, requiring a transition from ad hoc aid to sustainable aid
The increase in humanitarian needs, linked to political, economic, and climate crises
The need for constant innovation, with products that respect people and the environment and are produced as close as possible to the areas of intervention
Further reflection on products that place nutrition at the heart of health issues.

Nutriset intends to respond to these challenges by pursuing its mission: to put science at the service of the most vulnerable and to continue to make nutrition a fundamental right accessible to all.

My fight against malnutrition is not just the story of an entrepreneurial journey, it is a call to action. Through Michel Lescanne’s commitment and Nutriset’s trajectory, this book powerfully reminds us that innovation, combined with determination, can save millions of lives. Faced with a persistent scourge, it charts a demanding but necessary course: making nutrition accessible to all!

Mon combat contre la malnutrition, Michel Lescanne with Christian Troubé, éditions Eyrolles

Esther de Montchalin

Other articles published on this topic in Défis Humanitaires:

When Nutriset engages in dialogue with humanitarian organizations.

Nutrition: interview with Claire Fehrenbach from the Nutriset Group.

Nutriset: one company’s fight against malnutrition.

Humanitarian and geopolitics overview.

Meeting of heads of state and government in London to support Volodymyr Zelenky after his altercation with Donald Trump on February 28 at the White House © European Union, 2025

With this issue 100 of the online magazine Défis Humanitaires, we want to celebrate with our readers this milestone of good editorial hope. Since February 2018, we have been seeking to promote humanitarianism in its geopolitical environment, noting that humanity is at once one and diverse, universal and multiple, with its peoples and their countries.

This is all the more true given that 300 million human beings are in danger for want of help, and 2 billion men, women and children are living in destitution and uncertainty. Yet humanitarian aid, which has already begun to decline, is in danger of falling even further. The future looks more uncertain and dangerous than ever.

Understanding and anticipating events is a prerequisite for effective action. Humanitarian action is a positive response to cruel events. To understand where we are today and where we’re going, let’s take a brief look at the 4 periods that have marked humanitarianism since the 1980s, and draw some useful lessons from them.

Humanitarianism where we come from, 1980-1989.

Contemporary humanitarianism emerged in the 1980s, during the Cold War, when the world was divided into two antagonistic blocs, East and West, the USSR and the USA, and their allies in NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The real wars were fought on the periphery, in what was then known as the Third World. This is where contemporary humanitarianism was born, and where it based its legitimacy and development on field action, often crossing borders without visas to reach populations in danger. At the time, I was involved in this adventure of solidarity in Afghanistan, which also applied to Cambodia and Ethiopia. We created a new model that became a benchmark.

Distribution of briquettes in Kamianka, December 27, 2024. Solidarités International

A world disappears, 1989-2001.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the USSR in 1989-1991, after a brief period of euphoria and universal peace, ushered in a new era with the first Gulf War and UN Resolution 688 to protect the Kurds of Iraq. Then the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia, and the genocide in Rwanda established humanitarian action as an essential international policy, leading to the creation in 1992 of DG ECHO, the European Union’s and the Commission’s humanitarian instrument. Faced with urgent and far-reaching needs, the humanitarian community expanded rapidly, particularly NGOs, which established themselves as a major player in crises.

The turning point of September 11, 2001.

The next turning point came on September 11, 2001, with the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York by the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. We remember George W. Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive war against terrorism, and the UN Resolution authorizing the United States to intervene in Afghanistan, where it remained for 20 years, with the inglorious end that we know. We remember the American intervention in Iraq to “democratize the Middle East”, which was based on false allegations and had dramatic consequences.

The humanitarian dynamic will grow out of necessity, and will soon be stimulated by the Arab Spring, which will degenerate into civil war in Syria. We remember the Serval operation in Mali in January 2013, against jihadist groups, then in Burkina Faso and Niger. During this period, humanitarian action emerged as one of the essential components of any solution, along with its other security, diplomatic and political aspects. It was at this time that the concept of the Humanitarian-Development Nexus was born and flourished, to which the word peace was soon added.

BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, attended by the UN Secretary-General. The world is reshaping itself! ©Agency brics-russia2024.

Sequel or change of era?

In an article entitled “From geopolitics to humanitarianism” published in Défis Humanitaires on July 24, 2019, I posed the question of whether this period was a continuation of what had gone before or whether, on the contrary, it heralded a new geopolitical and humanitarian cycle. A question all the more necessary given that Donald Trump had been elected in 2016, Vladimir Putin had been re-elected in 2018 as had Erdogan, the Turkish president, and Xi Jinping had been elected president for life of the People’s Republic of China in the same year.

To this question we now have the answer, which is the main focus of this editorial for the 100th issue of Humanitarian Challenges.

From Putin to Trump, or the great leap into the unknown!

The tipping point begins with Russia’s attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and is confirmed with the election of Donald Trump, who takes office on January 22, 2025. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, war had been frozen in Europe. For more than 3 years, the war in Ukraine has meant that borders have been called into question, and the countries of the European continent, which had been slumbering, are rearming because of the threat of a possible extension of a conflict with the Baltic States and Poland, with the risk of a domino effect with NATO member countries.

This is the moment chosen by Donald Trump to propose that Canada become the 51st state of the USA, to invite Greenland to come under his control, to regain control of the Panama Canal and to seek to impose peace on Ukraine with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, while threatening that country and its allies in Europe with abandonment if they do not comply within a week!

Vladimir Putin & Donald Trump in Helsinki July 2018. (Image Credit Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons)

The turning point that history will remember is here, and it’s here to stay. Possible challenges to borders, geopolitical deregulation, the law of survival of the fittest, the race for access to natural resources, the risk of confrontation that could spiral out of control, the weakening of the UN and paralysis of the Security Council.

And what can we say about the undermining of the Climate Agreement, the struggle for control of space, information conceived as a battlefield – the list is long, foreshadowing this change of era.
In this poisonous climate, the guarantee of freedom and independence for some countries, and of power and neo-empire for others, is leading to an exponential increase in defense budgets.

In the latest “Eurobarometer” survey, 66% of people rank protecting people as their top priority. The economy and industry came next (36%), followed by energy resources (27%).

The need for security has just led countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to decide on March 18, in a joint declaration, to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines, ratified by 164 states!

As in previous periods, this will have a major impact on the humanitarian sector!

What about humanitarian aid?

Not only are humanitarian needs still with us, but they are set to increase, both because of the vulnerabilities that are flourishing (conflict, poverty, climate, water resources, demographics in Africa) and because of the drastic decline in resources.

The Trump administration’s dislocation of USAID and freeze on funded programs has caused, despite exemptions, a veritable cataclysm in humanitarian and development aid. All the more so as this shock was preceded by a sharp drop in official development assistance from many European Union and OECD member countries.

The main trend seems to be as follows: a rapid decline in funding, restricted or even inaccessible general access to populations in danger, with a retreat from International Humanitarian Law, more violence against civilians considered as protagonists and stakes in wars, politicization and criticism of humanitarian aid.

Mothers with their children wait at the MSF clinic in the Zamzam camp, 15 km from El Fasher, North Darfur. MSF

Let’s face it, this is a historic step backwards for humanitarian action. Although we started from scratch almost 50 years ago, we’ve been making progress ever since, but for the first time we’re taking a step backwards at a time when we were already struggling to meet the vital needs of populations in danger. The head of a humanitarian NGO recently told me that for his organization, this was a 10-year step backwards! The majority of humanitarian NGOs are having to reluctantly and urgently lay off some of their staff. The UN and its agencies are planning to regroup into 4 large entities, and even to relocate to cut costs.

If the humanitarian aid budget almost doubled between 2012 and 2021, it then briefly stagnated, and now it has been falling since 2023, and will increase and accelerate in 2025. What will happen next? Will there be a reaction, a halt, a stabilization at the very least, or, on the contrary, will the downward slide continue, and to what extent?

And yet, if the shock is conducive to the search for an alternative model, we don’t see a replacement solution on the scale. In any case, we need to acquire more influence and, ultimately, more audacity and imagination to invent the future.

A new mobilization in these changing times.

For the sake of completeness, we need to add to the geopolitics of conflicts, those of more numerous catastrophes and the risk of major epidemics.

How can we act in the face of rising extremes when civilian populations are seen as war targets and treated as enemies to be annihilated? This is the case in Gaza with the use of the weapon of hunger against an entire population; it’s the case in Ukraine with the systematic bombing of towns and villages and civilian infrastructures; it’s the case in the civil war in Sudan. This is the dehumanization of total war, in the face of which humanitarian aid must do everything in its power to fulfill its mission in spite of everything!

I can also see the growing debate between the national priority of security and international aid in its various forms. One is not incompatible with the other. I believe that we can be proud of our own identity, while believing that others can also be proud of their own nationality, while feeling concerned by the misfortune of others by providing them, as partners, with aid, skills, tools and knowledge useful for their development, and also learning from them. A country grows by making these choices of effective and respectful solidarity. This in no way prevents us from promoting the interests of our own people.

This is also why I believe that the ideological and partisan politicization of humanitarian aid will lead to its weakening. Let’s not fall into this trap. Humanitarian aid is indisputable when it is carried out within the framework of its principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.
At a time when security is becoming a priority for public opinion and their countries, human security must be associated with it, all the more so as the insecurity of populations fleeing war, disaster and epidemics destabilizes their neighbors from near and far, through a domino effect that will eventually impact us too if we do nothing.

More concretely, there are deadlines that are as much at stake. This is the case in France, with the Finance Bill for 2025 and 2026. Political leaders must, at the very least, stabilize humanitarian and development budgets, or even revitalize them in the spirit of the recent Presidential Council for International Partnerships. Similarly, the 4th European Humanitarian Forum on May 19 and 20 in Brussels should be an opportunity to strengthen DG ECHO’s humanitarian aid, rather than diluting and weakening it. Finally, the Conference on Financing for Development in Seville next June could be the occasion for a new impetus, as well as a demanding “aggiornamento” (updating) to improve efficiency for populations and optimize private initiative for all.

We’ll be back in touch with you in early June with issue 101 of Défis Humanitaires.

Défis Humanitaires, with you.

One hundred editions since February 2018, 152 different authors of articles and interviews whom I’d like to thank here for their contribution, a growing increase in the number of readers, in France of course but also in order in the USA, Burkina Faso, Canada, Belgium, Mali, Switzerland, Senegal, the UK and Cameroon for the first 10. The most widely-read articles focus on humanitarian thinking, the humanitarian-development Nexus, funding and salaries, demographics and philanthropy.

In this chaotic and dangerous international context, Défis Humanitaires, a free and independent magazine, is more topical than ever, and we have many projects to propose to you. I therefore invite you to answer the questionnaire enclosed in this issue, which will be very useful to us, as well as to testify “A vos plumes” for Défis Humanitaires. We’ll be publishing these testimonials in our next issue in June.

Finally, with issue 100, Défis Humanitaires aims to evolve into an information medium with greater visibility and smoother navigation. To achieve this, your support (donate) will be decisive to better inform, alert and mobilize. This has never been as useful as it is today. If we don’t act, we’ll go backwards!

I’d like to thank you personally for your support and for this mutual commitment, which strengthens humanitarianism.

Alain Boinet.