World leaders fail to end child malnutrition as promised

Ten years ago, world leaders all promised to end child malnourishment by the year 2030. Yet, a shocking new analysis released by Save the Children this week shows children under five in the world’s most deadly conflict zones are as far as ever from escaping hunger. Rather, millions of young lives are trapped in a cycle of hunger and despair while leaders meet this week at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

In 20 conflict-affected countries, nearly 44 million children under age five are stunted; that means they are too short for their age due to chronic undernourishment. That’s over one in three children. Worse still, this number has barely even changed since 2015, since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed. Globally, a total of 150 million children were stunted worldwide in 2024, a long way from the goal of 108 million next year.

Stunting is more than just height. It harms the bodies and minds of children for life, depriving them of their potential before they even have the opportunity to reach it. Acute malnutrition (wasting) is even worse. It kills kids if it’s not treated, and right now 43 million children are acutely malnourished. That’s 11 million more than the world promised to reduce to zero by 2025.

Conflict is the major drive of this crisis. Violence in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan has not only flattened agricultural land and housing but cut humanitarian relief as well. Starvation is being used as a tool of war. Families are forced to flee as the cost of food rises, and children? They’re left to starve.

A mother of 32 from Yemen, Maha, has been displaced many times since the war began in 2014. Her husband is too sick to work, and Maha struggles day and night to put food on the table for her children. She often divides a single tiny meal into two so that her family might survive morning and night. Her baby daughter, Amal, became severely malnourished after days of having no suitable food. Amal received life-saving nutrition and medical attention through Save the Children, but millions of other children are not as lucky as her.

“It is absolutely shameful that 10 years after world leaders had pledged to end malnutrition, 150 million children are still stunted and 43 million wasted by acute malnourishment,” Save the Children’s UN Representative Mohamad Alasmar stated. “Every day we procrastinate is an additional day more children die or are forever scarred. Children should not pay the price for inaction globally.”

The world can end malnutrition by providing equal access to good food, by ending climate change, by enabling healthier health systems, and most of all, by ending wars that deprive children of food. Instead of extra money, aid has been cut. The Global Nutrition Cluster puts the shortfall in nutrition funding at 72%. During the remainder of 2025, $659 million is needed, but only $186 million has been secured

The reality is straightforward; without immediate action, hunger and widespread child fatalities are inevitable. Save the Children has been working with children for more than 100 years, but charities are not able to fix this problem by themselves. Leaders need to act today, not in five years’ time, not in a decade. The commitment to end malnutrition is slipping through our fingers, and millions of children’s lives hang in the balance.