Thirteen billion US dollars will be needed every year from 2025 to address global nutritional challenges, according to the World Bank report, 2024 Investment Framework for Nutrition. Therefore, between 2025 and 2034, US$128 billion will be needed to scale up nutritional interventions which is in addition to the US$6.3 billion that is already being spent annually at the global level to deal with the issue.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported last October that almost two million children face the risk of death due to funding shortages of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) which is vital for treating children under five years of age who are afflicted by severe wasting.
Although over the years strides have been made to fight malnutrition, challenges remain that require nutrition interventions, as per the report. From 1990 to 2022, there was a 44% decrease in cases of stunted children, but there are still 148 million children stunted worldwide. Low birth weight (LBW) and wasting cases are also high. In 2020, one in seven children born had LBW and, in 2022, 45 million children suffered from wasting. Trends also show anemia cases are rising and affects three out of 10 women globally. Together with this, obesity is rising. In 2022 about 45% of adults were overweight or obese, yet over 70% of them lived in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Of the US$128 billion, 77% (US$98 billion) will be allocated to LMICs. By region, US$43 billion will go to South Asia, US$34 billion to sub-Saharan Africa, US$19 billion to East Asia and the Pacific, and US$16 billion to North Africa, and the Middle East.
With malnutrition challenges remaining urgent, the much-needed funds are expected to prevent 6.2 million deaths among children under five years old and 980,000 still births between 2025 and 2034. It is also predicted that 27 million stunted growth cases in children who will turn five and 47 million cases of wasting will be prevented.
The funds will further prevent 77 million cases of anemia in children below the age of five and 144 million cases of maternal anemia. Funding will also be directed to nutritional interventions that aim to reduce 47 million wasting incidences and almost 7 million cases of LBW, while helping 85 million babies to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their life.
UNICEF launched a fundraising call for US$165 million to reach children in the affected countries suffering from severe wasting (severe acute malnutrition). Among the countries that need RUTF stocks to be urgently replenished are Chad, Niger, Mali, and Nigeria while existing stocks held by Kenya, Cameroon, South Sudan, Sudan, Madagascar, Pakistan, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be exhausted by mid-2025.
In addressing malnutrition, climate change remains a major negative factor according to the report, more so among vulnerable communities and countries worldwide. This is an issue that UNICEF’s Director of Child Nutrition and Development, Victor Aguayo also noted.
“In the past two years, an unprecedented global response has allowed the scale-up of nutrition programmes to contain child wasting and its associated mortality in countries severely affected by conflict, climate and economic shocks, and the resulting maternal and child nutrition crisis. But urgent action is needed now to save the lives of nearly two million children who are fighting this silent killer,” Aguayo said.
Droughts will increase the chances of wasting and underweight by nearly 50%, and severe weather patterns will increase cases of severe stunted growth by 23% in sub-Saharan Africa, and 62% in South Asia by the 2050s according to the World Bank report. Climate change is also worsening the obesity crisis by reducing the availability of and access to fresh foods, resulting in a shift to unhealthy and costly ultra-processed foods.
If the nutrition interventions are successfully scaled up to address malnutrition, it is estimated they will generate US$2.4 trillion worth of economic benefits. For every US$1 invested to fight malnutrition, US$23 will be the anticipated return. However, if there are no interventions, it will cost US$41 trillion for over 10 years, with US$21 trillion linked to losses of economic productivity due to malnutrition and US$20 trillion will be the economic and social costs that occur due to obesity and overweightness.
