Global Partnership Launches Initiative to Prevent Child Wasting
FCDO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO announce five-year Joint UN Initiative for the Prevention of Wasting (JUNIPr) to generate evidence on nationally-led preventative approaches in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali to combat child malnutrition in food insecure settings.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UNICEF, WFP, and WHO have officially announced the Joint UN Initiative for the Prevention of Wasting (JUNIPr), a collaborative effort aimed at accelerating the prevention of child wasting in food-insecure regions. First announced by the UK Prime Minister at the G20 summit in Rio last November, the initiative was formally launched during a virtual event on March 11, 2025.
Lord Collins of Highbury, Minister of Africa at the UK's FCDO, opened the event highlighting that while progress has been made on increasing the number of children receiving treatment, "we continue to see the same number of children becoming wasted each year." He emphasized that child wasting is entirely preventable and impacts both individual quality of life and wider economic growth. The five-year partnership will implement context-adapted, nationally-led approaches in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali, with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) serving as the global research partner.
Key presentations from UN agency representatives included Dr. Victor Aguayo (UNICEF), who shared that globally 45 million children under 5 suffer from wasting, with the vast majority living outside humanitarian contexts, and Francesca Elderman (WFP), who outlined how poverty, climate change, and conflict are driving food insecurity for hundreds of millions of people. Dr. Luis de Regil (WHO) discussed the WHO's comprehensive guidelines for wasting prevention that emphasize multi-sectoral approaches spanning food, water, sanitation, social protection, and health systems.
Government representatives from the three implementation countries shared insights on their specific challenges, with common themes including the need for stronger evidence on prevention approaches, multi-sectoral coordination, and sustainable funding. The initiative aims to generate crucial evidence on what preventive measures work best in different contexts, with IFPRI conducting formative research, implementation research, and impact evaluation using randomized control trials over the next several years.
The recorded session includes presentations in English with French simultaneous interpretation available for viewers.