London, United Kingdom, March 14, 2024 —  The International Rescue Committee today announced the launch of the Movement Against Malnutrition, a bold new venture dedicated to ensuring that no child dies of hunger.

At any given time, 45 million children around the world are suffering from acute malnutrition, and up to 2 million children a year die, despite the existence of a simple, affordable treatment–a peanut-based paste known as Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food–to save their lives. In places where IRC works, less than 1 in 5 children with acute malnutrition receive this life-saving treatment, but the IRC has developed a new, simplified approach, which is scalable, less expensive than the standard protocol, and has been proven to help over 90% of malnourished children recover in just weeks. 

David Miliband, President and CEO of the IRC, said, 

“It is unconscionable that millions of children needlessly die from acute malnutrition when a proven, scalable solution to save their lives already exists. We launched the Movement Against Malnutrition to break down needless silos and accelerate progress to end this global injustice once and for all. Against the backdrop of a growing global hunger crisis and the unabated impact of climate change, children can’t afford to wait any longer for the humanitarian system to scale the evidence-based approaches they need right now.”

Today, malnourished children who need life-saving treatment are artificially divided into two groups: moderately and severely malnourished. Each is treated with different products, at different delivery points, supported by two different UN agencies — limiting the number of children that can be reached with finite resources. The Movement Against Malnutrition advocates for aradically simpler, scalable treatment approach that treats all forms of acute malnutrition with a single food product at a single point of care, leveraging community health workers already embedded in local communities, using simplified diagnosis and dosing. 

The Movement Against Malnutrition builds on IRC’s track record, including the design and research of ground-breaking innovations, delivery of malnutrition services to millions of children a year, and advocacy for urgent action to end this global crisis. 

IRC ambassador, actor and advocate for a better solution to reach millions of children around the world suffering from acute malnutrition, Mia Farrow, said,

"The current system is failing children and causing preventable deaths. I've been to sub-Saharan Africa over 25 times in conflict zones where children are suffering from malnourishment, and sadly far too little has changed. We need to simplify the current system. We need to use one food product to treat all children with acute malnutrition. I'm proud to support the Movement Against Malnutrition and call on the public to help us build a world where no child dies of starvation and the millions of children suffering from malnutrition receive the life-saving treatment they deserve."

Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation and former USAID Administrator added,

“The Movement Against Malnutrition is making a big bet to fundamentally solve a major global injustice: millions of children die of hunger each year. They are demonstrating that radically simpler, scalable approaches that treat all forms of acute malnutrition are both life-saving and cost-saving."

Amit Paley, the Executive Director of the Movement Against Malnutrition, said,

“There are many horrific problems in the world for which we don’t have proven and scalable solutions, but treatment of acute malnutrition is not one of them,” said  . “The global community must take urgent action to save the lives of millions of children who need this simple, life-saving treatment now."

Mesfin Teklu Tessema, Senior Director of Health at the IRC, said, 

“With climate change and conflict exacerbating the global hunger crisis, it is more important than ever that we scale up simplified approaches to tackle acute malnutrition. This requires dependable funding flowing directly into nationally-owned and nationally-led plans for scale - paired with accountable and transparent measurement of progress. Unlike the current global approach to malnutrition, closing the treatment gap requires a focused, context-oriented strategy, through national nutrition plans jointly developed by the international donor community and governments of affected countries. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by.”

ABOUT THE MOVEMENT AGAINST MALNUTRITION

The Movement Against Malnutrition is a bold new venture to ensure no child dies of hunger. We design and research ground-breaking innovations, deliver malnutrition services to millions of children, and advocate for urgent action to end this global crisis. The Movement Against Malnutrition was launched in 2023 by the International Rescue Committee in order to broaden this global effort to more partners; to unify all of the IRC’s groundbreaking innovation, research, program delivery, and advocacy under this new umbrella venture; and to drive funding and focus to save the lives of millions of children. Learn more at www.movement against malnutrition.org