Part 2: The Next Frontier
Scaling up and harnessing technology (2010s)
Over decades, we built an efficient, responsive global network to address the crisis of childhood malnutrition. Every day, we screen thousands of children for malnutrition and deliver life-saving treatment that is 90% effective.
Thanks to these efforts and many others, between the 1990s and the late 2010s, the global proportion of malnourished children was cut in half. Striking gains were made in regions with the largest burden of disease and hunger, with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia seeing the greatest improvement. More children reach their fifth birthday now than at any other point in human history. We have proven that remarkable progress is possible.
We are inspired by the people we serve and have seen them overcome unthinkable challenges – with the right support. So, in the 2010s, we expanded our focus on hunger prevention. We helped herders find more effective grazing land thanks to our “GPS for goats;” provided training and supplies to diversify diets, start small businesses and improve incomes; and worked on solutions like Smart Tap, a solar-powered vending system that provides convenient access to safe water – easing the burden and dangers of water collection, particularly for women and girls.
The Smart Tap system is like an easy-to-use vending machine, and it allows families across rural Kenya to access clean drinking water.
We bolstered our focus on empowering women, who face a disproportionate burden of malnutrition and too often eat last and least.
We also showed that the world produces enough food for everyone — hunger isn’t just an issue of food, it’s an issue of equity. Hunger makes poverty harder to escape, for families and for nations: every year, undernutrition costs USD $3 trillion in productivity loss because malnutrition has stunted people’s physical and cognitive abilities.
New solutions to end hunger (2020s)
In 2020, we helped to control the spread of COVID-19 and Ebola among some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. We supported health centers, raised awareness about how to prevent outbreaks, and provided urgently-needed supplies that ranged from medicine to hygiene kits to personal protective equipment. We also helped some of the world’s poorer people weather the impacts of pandemic-related inflation.
A health worker administers the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a young woman in Somalia.
Today, conflict and climate change mean that hunger is once again on the rise. Globally, nearly one in three people worry about where their next meal is coming from. Two-thirds of children—more than 400 million kids—don’t get the nutrients they need to thrive. Worse, every 15 seconds, a child loses the fight against hunger’s deadly effects.
Despite these warning signs, the world is seeing cuts in the funding that made previous progress possible. Our analysis of funding through the UN humanitarian system revealed that only 35% of appeals from countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger were satisfied in 2023, resulting in a hunger funding gap of 65%.
The Hunger Funding Gap
Countries around the world are suffering from hunger, but appeals are going underfunded — or not funded at all. Action Against Hunger’s 2024 Hunger Funding Gap report found that globally, only 35% of appeals from countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger were met in 2023.
To confront these challenges and deliver on the promise of zero hunger for all, Action Against Hunger continues to innovate. In an average year, we conduct 30+ research initiatives across 25+ countries. Our work advances:
- Prevention – We are introducing climate-smart agricultural practices to help prevent hunger. In Zambia, our Black-Eyed Pea Project promotes the cultivation of drought-resistant crops and helps vulnerable communities in Zambia build resilience against climate-related hunger through sustainable agricultural practices.
- Prediction – We developed MERIAM (Modeling Early Risk Indicators to Anticipate Malnutrition), a predictive model that uses climate data and socioeconomic indicators to foresee hotspots of malnutrition well in advance of a crisis.
- Tracking – SMART+ is an all-in-one digital tool that can revolutionize the way nutrition data is collected and analyzed. It provides a real-time view of where malnutrition is occurring, providing transparency and data so that governments, public health organizations, and NGOs can mount a faster, more targeted response.
- Screening – Every day, we screen thousands of children for malnutrition. We’re also inventing new ways to make screening more efficient than ever before. One of our newest innovations is the SAM Photo App, which can detect severe acute malnutrition (SAM) with a smartphone image, a faster, more accurate approach than today’s standards. It’s an innovation recognized by the Fast Company World Changing Idea Awards.
- Treatment – Novel malnutrition treatment formulas offer an innovative way to reach more people in need at a fraction of the cost. In sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere around the world, the costs of milk have risen dramatically. This is a problem since milk is a key ingredient in Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Foods, or RUTF. Through novel RUTF, we can create non-dairy formulas while maintaining efficacy and efficiency.
We prioritize efficiency in these efforts: $0.90 of every $1 supports high-impact programs, and we have earned a 4-star Charity Navigator rating for 17+ years.
An Action Against Hunger aid worker talks with a Palestinian woman.
Looking ahead
Over the past 45 years, we have co-created solutions with the communities we serve, improved livelihoods, successfully advocated for new policies and funding, and strengthened health systems. Today, we work in 59 countries, reaching more than 21 million people each year.
Hunger is a crisis, but it’s one we can solve. It is possible to end hunger in our lifetimes. But we can’t do it alone.
Donate if you can. Take a moment to share this story. Tell your elected official that you care about this cause. Together, we can create a future where every life is well nourished.
