The Campaign to End Malnutrition

Campaign to End Malnutrition

Global hunger—both chronic and acute malnutrition—now afflicts more than a billion people worldwide, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Severe acute malnutrition, however, is the more immediate killer: it threatens 19 million children with starvation. Every year as many as 5 million of them die from hunger-related causes.

This loss of life is all the more tragic because acute malnutrition is preventable, predictable, and cost- effective to treat. We know how to save starving children if we can reach them, but only about 3% ever receive help because traditional therapeutic programs were impossible to scale up. Yet this is about to change:

We now have the tools to end acute malnutrition.

A range of micronutrient-dense Ready-To-Use-Foods (RUFs) have been developed that are ideal tools for treating and preventing acute malnutrition. These new RUFs require no preparation, no dilution (avoiding dirty water), no refrigeration, have a long shelf-life, can be stored anywhere, and can be massively scaled up.

These tools are real and they’ve been tested. We simply need public support and political commitment to make this happen on a large enough scale to save the millions of children who die each year.

No child should die of hunger today. Join the Campaign and help end childhood deaths from malnutrition!

Learn more about the Campaign

Campaign Objectives & Goals

It’s crucial to build understanding and support among U.S. constituents and decision makers. Each phase of the campaign will emphasize goals specific to the following:

• Public Policy: Create a Global Fund to End Malnutrition and secure political commitments to prioritize ending acute malnutrition.
• Field Programs: Massively scale up the coverage of Action Against Hunger’s global humanitarian programs.
• Humanitarian Advocacy: Reduce the costs of RUFs, diversify the number of producers, develop new products, ensure their availability, etc.
• Consensus & Coalition Building: Create a broad coalition of like-minded NGOs, UN bodies, and institutions to amplify our collective goals.

We'll provide specifics on our campaign goals as each phase is launched.

We Need Your Collaboration & Support

Global hunger can seem overwhelming and it’s easy to assume individual efforts don’t add up to much. But if we break it down, we quickly see that there are clear steps we can take to make a difference. Here’s how you can support the campaign and help save lives:

• Promote the Campaign: Join us online: host banners, friend us, email your friends!
• Make a Life-Saving Gift: $50 provides 45 days of life-saving treatment for a sick child. These solutions are affordable but we need your help!
• Lend Us Your Voice: Sign up to support our public policy goals as we roll out each new phase of this multi-year campaign.
• Host an Educational Fundraiser: Commit to engaging others with our step-by-step guides for holding educational fundraisers in your school or community!

Find out how you can play a part!

View the Impact of Malnutrition in Niger: ACF's "854" Trailer

Action Against Hunger’s trailer "854" features on-the-ground interviews with ACF staff and beneficiaries and showcases the impacts of malnutrition and the global food crisis on local communities in Niger. (The title refers to the 854 million people who suffer from global hunger, although the UN has announced recently that the number of hungry people worldwide has passed one billion.)

Host this video on your blog or networking site!

Action Against Hunger:: Acute Malnutrition Brochure

Read more about this disease and Action Against Hunger’s proven approach to addressing its symptoms and underlying causes.