Wasting is one of the largest mortality drivers for children U5, contributing to up to 2 million deaths annually. In 2019, 47M children were affected by wasting, of which 14.3M were severely wasted. Urgent action is therefore needed to achieve the WHA target by 2025 to reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%. While ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) is a highly cost-effective treatment for severe acute malnutrition, funding for RUTFs only manages to cover roughly 25% of the potential need.
R4D was supported by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Eleanor Crook Foundation to assess RUTF market challenges at the global and country level (Ethiopia and Tanzania), to further develop recommendations that address these barriers. The policy brief and final readout slides are summaries of our final recommended actions, with the objective to provide key decision makers with insights to design market shaping interventions that can increase availability of RUTFs.
