HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Since 2000, the number of stunted children under the age of five has fallen by 55 million. Millions more severely malnourished children have been saved. This has been possible because of a shared commitment and sustained investment.  

But massive funding cuts for international aid are having an immediate and severe impact on children’s survival, undermining these gains.

The unprecedented scale and speed of these cuts is disrupting critical services and putting millions of lives at risk. 

On nutrition alone, UNICEF has estimated at least 14 million children could have their access to essential nutrition support disrupted. 

Here’s what cuts could mean for Rohingya refugees and children in Sudan and Yemen – and what UNICEF can deliver with the right funding.

Yemen

Cuts to funding could mean that a child such as Sanad might not receive the support needed to recover from severe acute malnutrition. 

Children suffering from severe acute malnutrition – the most immediate, visible and life-threatening form of malnutrition – are too thin and their immune systems are weak, leaving them vulnerable to developmental delays, disease and death. 

Without the funds it needs, UNICEF also can’t support training for community health volunteers such as Arzaq.

Time and again, donor support has saved lives in Yemen, alleviated suffering, and protected the most vulnerable. But the country continues to face multiple overlapping crises that are driving food insecurity there, meaning solidarity is more critical than ever. 

Cox’s Bazar, southern Bangladesh

More than a million Rohingya refugees – including more than 500,000 children – live in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

There, families are facing emergency levels of malnutrition. 

As needs keep rising and funding declines, families have told UNICEF that they are terrified of what will happen to their babies if there are further food ration cuts and if life-saving nutrition treatment services stop.

Rohingya families can’t yet safely return home, but they have no legal right to work, so sustained humanitarian support isn’t optional – it’s essential for their survival. UNICEF is determined to stay and deliver for children in Cox’s Bazar, but without guaranteed funding, critical services will be at risk. 

Sudan

More than two years of conflict have sent malnutrition rates soaring.

The five Darfur states, for example, saw an almost 50 per cent surge in the number of children being treated for severe acute malnutrition between January and May 2025 compared with a year earlier. 

But even as the needs grow, UNICEF’s work in Sudan faces extreme challenges from funding cuts.

By the end of June 2025, 62 per cent of UNICEF’s humanitarian funding requirements remained unmet, while recent cuts have also forced many of UNICEF’s vital partners to scale back their work.  

Funding also supports training for mothers such as Muzdalifa, in Kassala state, as part of the Mother Support Groups initiative. 

The funding crisis comes at a time of unprecedented need for children who continue to face record levels of displacement, new and protracted conflicts, disease outbreaks, and the deadly consequences of climate change – all of which are undermining their access to adequate nutrition. 

With the right funding, UNICEF is able to:

• Provide life-saving treatment, including procuring and distributing ready-to-use therapeutic food.
• Promote optimal feeding practices, including advocating for and supporting breastfeeding and providing nutrition counseling for mothers and caregivers.
• Strengthen nutrition systems, including training health workers, supplying screening tools like MUAC tapes, and supporting routine primary healthcare to ensure early detection and treatment of malnutrition.
• Build resilient systems to monitor and anticipate potential nutrition emergencies, allowing us to sound the alarm before it’s too late.
• Address the root causes of malnutrition, including working to improve access to nutritious food and safe water, and supporting social protection programmes, like cash transfers, to help vulnerable families afford food and other necessities.
• Invest in access, including strengthening supply chains, to ensure supplies and services can get where they need to go, even to the hardest-to-reach children and families.

UNICEF is therefore calling on governments and donors to prioritize investments in health and nutrition programmes for children and is urging national governments to allocate more funding to domestic nutrition and health services. 

Good nutrition is the foundation of child survival and development, with impressive returns on investment. Good nutrition means stronger families, societies and countries, and ultimately a more stable world.