The Contribution of the Private Sector to the Prevention and Treatment of Child Wasting. Results Of A Landscape Analysis

This report was written by Action Against Hunger UK and financed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). This work was carried out in order to stimulate new action and commitment to tackle the growing problem of child wasting. It is hoped that the findings will support dialogue on this issue between governments, public agencies and the private sector.

Published: 2021

Author: Action Against Hunger UK

In 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals were established, they included a bold commitment to eliminate all forms of malnutrition in the world by 2030. Specific targets, set at the World Health Assembly, included reducing the global proportion
of children suffering from wasting to below 3% by 2030. Today, globally and in many countries, we are far from reaching that target, and the Covid-19 pandemic is putting millions more children at risk. In 2020, 6.7% of all children under five years of age were wasted, that’s 45.4 million cases worldwide, and yet in 2019, despite a significant increase in coverage of community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) over the past two decades, only 11 million children were reported as treated for wasting – suggesting that a minority (less than 24% of the children in need of treatment) currently have access to it. With food insecurity and climate-related shocks, hunger is set to rise worldwide. We need game-changing solutions to dramatically increase the number of children accessing treatment.

This study is the result of a landscape analysis undertaken by Action Against Hunger UK for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to identify the spectrum of private sector contributions to targeted prevention and management of wasting, and to identify the major gaps for advocacy, partnership and investment.