Summary:
Child malnutrition in Nepal is worsening due to cuts in international funding, insufficient treatment coverage, rising food costs, and competing health priorities. This threatens past progress in reducing child mortality and requires urgent integrated interventions.
- Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached alarming levels, with a recent government survey showing high rates of wasting (7.8%) and severe wasting (1.6%) among children aged 6 months to 5 years. Wasting is the percentage of children who are underweight for their height.
- In Madhesh province, near the Indian border, wasting rates were as high as 12.3%, and 24.2% of children were underweight.
- The survey covered over one million children but only about half of the relevant age group nationwide; rates may be worse in remote areas.
- Nepal had seen a 72% decline in under-five mortality from 1996 to 2022, but gains are now at risk due to rising malnutrition.
- Malnutrition greatly increases the risk of death (12 times higher risk) and negatively impacts school performance and future productivity.
- USAID, which previously funded nutrition programs reaching nearly 9 million people in 48 districts with $72 million over five years starting in 2025, stopped funding after being closed by the US government.
- Helen Keller International, running nutrition programs in Nepal, has only raised under $5 million to cover 223,000 people in nine districts after USAID funding ended.
- The government purchases Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), but aid cuts stopped community outreach and health worker follow-ups, reducing treatment access.
- Rising food prices are worsening food insecurity; eggs, a nutritious food, have become very expensive compared to staples like rice.
- Malnutrition competes with other health priorities like immunization for domestic funding.
- Only about 35% of children needing treatment for wasting currently receive it, with supplies still insufficient according to UNICEF Nepal.
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3 Comments
Zephyr@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 44d
What I have found staying in multiple third world countries for years (although I have not stayed in Nepal) is that there is often a substantial amount of corruption which prevents money from actually benefiting the people and aid that has been given consistently for years or even decades has essentially been budgeted in. That is there was never a plan for the situation where the aid stops, much less an attempt to take up these sovereign responsibilities by the government. On top of that there's typically more than enough money collected but as you know governments don't typically spend money on the poor.
It's the right of any sovereign nation to choose to give or cease giving aid, that said immediate injections or more so removals of large sums of money can be and are very devastating. If the goal was to decrease aid while decreasing human suffering there could have been a gradual decrease in aid thus giving governments time to do what honestly they should have already been doing anyways aka planning on taking care of their own citizens. No one should treat aid as a guaranteed revenue stream in really any context, but unfortunately that's what has been done.
Finally a last note. I've found that aid is almost never given to anything that would actually directly benefit the development of the country or its financial standing, that is its independence. If anything it can in some circumstances become a serious detriment to the development of wealth, like getting developing nations hooked on Monsanto seeds by donating them thus displacing local agriculture and ensuring dependence on seeds they now need to purchase yearly.
loki@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 44d
Yes, corruption was a big issue with past governments which eventually led to people being pushed off the edge.
It sparked protests which turned deadly last year. The government were ousted and a new government is in place. We'll probably never know the extent of how much corruption took place, since it's been a norm for so long.
The new government is under a younger leadership and they won on a pledge to steer away from corruption and nepotism. But the jury's still out of how they keep their word.
I hope they have plans to address these issues that need immediate attention and be less reliant on foreign aid moving forward. I also hope we don't fall into debt trap.
Zephyr@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 44d
Without knowing the situation well I figured it would be similar. The same story happens again and again in so many places. I do want to congratulate Nepal and the youth for their protest but as you know, that was the easy part. The hard part is actually running the country and not succumbing to corruption. Those born in famine tend to hoard anything and everything. Also they call revolutions that because it's like a wheel, it revolves around and around. That said maybe these new leaders will have a strong enough heart and strong enough mind for the task they have given themselves. It seems to be a very wonderful place and personally I would love to visit and stay for a while myself.