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Wasting Reset: Catalysing action and accountability on child wasting

While there has been a recent increase in both interest and investment aimed at reducing wasting, including strong support from national governments, the pace of progress is much too slow to reach global goals and targets. We therefore need a ‘reset’ of childhood wasting prevention,…

September 9, 2021 - Last update: February 13, 2023

While there has been a recent increase in both interest and investment aimed at reducing wasting, including strong support from national governments, the pace of progress is much too slow to reach global goals and targets. We therefore need a ‘reset’ of childhood wasting prevention, early detection, and treatment. To address these constraints, an interagency effort, driven by ENN and involving multiple stakeholders, has developed a series of consensus-driven actions and solutions across six key themes.

Wasting is the most visible type of malnutrition and carries the highest risk of death. Children with severe wasting are 9-12 times more likely to die than healthy, well-nourished children. Today, an estimated 50 million children under five years of age suffer from wasting, and this figure has remained largely unchanged over the last decade, with rates of child undernutrition and food insecurity being on the rise. The Nutrition Year of Action, the UN  Food Systems Summit, and the Nutrition for Growth Summit are among several significant advocacy opportunities for resetting action on wasting and for transforming systems, so they deliver much-needed progress. These initiatives occur in the context of the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting (GAP) and the development of GAP Operational Roadmaps, which are placing wasting front and centre on political agendas in select countries

This Wasting Reset aims to galvanise multiple stakeholders around the key actions needed to stimulate progress and ensure accountability in 2022-2030 period and will be used by governments and organisations to inform their political and financial commitments to tackling wasting. This game-changer on a ‘wasting reset’ has been included as part of the game-changers of Action Track 1 for the UN FSS.

The objective of this wasting reset is “To coalesce and clearly communicate the dialogue around what is required to reduce global wasting incidence and prevalence.” To achieve this, we must join forces to speak with one collective voice; we must embrace our diversity and downplay our differences.

Our recommendations:

  • High-level political commitment is needed to ensure that addressing child wasting is prioritised.
  • Multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement is key to sustaining this political will. The Nutrition for Growth Summit provides a crucial opportunity to make high-level commitments.
  • Creating meaningful mechanisms for accountability is essential to ensure commitments bring about real and sustained change.

LEARN MORE:

 

A synthesis of working group recommendations to guide the development of the ‘Wasting Reset’ manifesto

This synthesis document summarises the critical components of the six working group briefs, outlining the two main recommendations for each theme. The manifesto will be launched at the upcoming N4G Summit.

Download: English

 

 

 

 

 

Solutions from the advocacy working group

This brief  provides concrete recommendations for how diverse stakeholders can leverage advocacy and accountability to build
momentum around these key milestones, to accelerate progress in wasting reduction.

Download: English

 

 

 

Want to see the full suite of materials? Go to the ENN Wasting Reset page.

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Topics
Advocacy Nutrition for Growth