Approx US$577 million pledged for severe wasting since July for children: UNICEF

NEW YORK: Governments, philanthropies, and private donors have pledged approximately US$577 million since July in response to the deepening child malnutrition crisis – with at least 60 per cent of that amount committed to directly supporting UNICEF’s work.
Roughly US$280 million of the over half billion raised was pledged today at The Child Malnutrition Crisis: Pledging to Save Lives – a high-level event co-hosted by UNICEF, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and the government of Senegal at UNICEF Headquarters in New York.
The governments of Canada, Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom; and the Aliko Dangote Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the Eleanor Crook Foundation, the Greta Thunberg Foundation, Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and King Philanthropies came together at the high-level event during the 77th annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to address the growing food crisis.
The commitments were made as climate-driven drought, conflict, and rising food prices continue to drive up emergency levels of severe wasting in young children worldwide.
In 15 countries hardest hit, including in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, a child is being pushed into severe malnutrition every minute, according to a recent analysis by UNICEF.
“An escalating malnutrition crisis is pushing millions of children to the brink of starvation – and unless we do more, that crisis will become a catastrophe,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “UNICEF is immensely grateful for the pledges we have received, but we need further unrestricted funding to reach children before it is too late. We cannot stand by and let children die – not when we know how to prevent, detect, and treat severe wasting.”
Today’s commitments build upon pledges made in July, when USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced an unprecedented contribution of US$200 million to UNICEF to detect and treat severe child wasting. At that time, an additional US$50 million was pledged by private philanthropies including Philanthropist and Chair of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) Sir Chris Hohn, the Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF), The CRI Foundation, and The ELMA Relief Foundation, to address the malnutrition crisis.
“The truth is that the majority of children facing severe malnutrition, nearly two-thirds of children, live in places that don’t normally receive humanitarian aid,” said USAID Administrator Samantha Power. “We are working to change that, to recognize that treatment for severe malnutrition should be accessible not just in humanitarian settings, but in non-crisis settings as well.”
Severe wasting – which makes children dangerously thin – is the most visible and lethal form of undernutrition. Weakened immune systems increase the risk of death among children under 5 by up to 11 times compared to well-nourished children. In response, UNICEF has scaled up its efforts in 15 countries most affected by the malnutrition crisis. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen are included in an Acceleration Plan calling for US$1.2 billion to help avert a rise in child deaths and mitigate the long-term damage of severe wasting.-NNI