Devex Highlights Impacts of USAID Suspensions on Lifesaving Nutrition

Tania Karas and Elissa Miolene highlight the damage US funding uncertainty is doing to the systems that provide child malnutrition treatment and the deadly consequences for children in need of lifesaving nutrition.

Although the US government has rescinded some terminations, including contracts to produce ready-to-use therapeutic foods used to treat malnutrition, funding has not resumed. Without funding and clear guidance on how to resume, children and families around the world continue to go without critical, lifesaving treatment.

“You need the whole system to work for the kids in need to be identified and make sure that the frontline workers have the product in hand and have the skills necessary to provide the right treatment,” said Helen Keller Intl Chief Program Officer Shawn Baker in the article.

Without treatment, millions of children suffering from malnutrition are at serious risk of dying. The World Health Organization estimates that 150 million children around the world are malnourished, with 45 million being wasted, the deadliest form of malnutrition. Helen Keller estimates the suspension of funding for our health and nutrition programs has put 121 million people at risk in the countries we support, including 21 million facing malnutrition alone.  

Read the full article on Devex.

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