Ending Child Wasting: A Multisystem Approach Towards 2030

This briefing note addresses the urgent global crisis of child wasting, which affects 45 million children under 5 years (6.8% globally) with 13.7 million suffering from severe wasting. Progress has been slow, with only a 0.7 percentage point reduction over the past decade, putting the world off-track to meet the target of reducing wasting to less than 5% by 2030.

The document emphasizes the need for a multisystem approach to prevent child wasting by addressing its immediate and underlying causes through four key systems:

1. Food System: Ensuring nutritious foods are available, accessible, affordable and safe by strengthening food supply chains and promoting diverse diets.
2. Health System: Integrating essential nutrition actions into primary healthcare, including maternal nutrition support, breastfeeding promotion, vaccinations, and growth monitoring.
3. Social Protection System: Breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition through targeted cash transfers and other support to vulnerable households, especially during the first 1,000 days of life.
4. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene System: Reducing exposure to pathogens that contribute to illness and malnutrition through safe water, sanitation facilities and hygiene practices.

The note also highlights the importance of strengthening governance systems through enhanced coordination, integrated policies, improved data collection, sustainable financing, and accountability mechanisms.

The report concludes that addressing child wasting requires coordinated, multisystem action targeted at vulnerable populations, with a life-cycle approach that builds resilience and breaks the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.