The UK-based Power of Nutrition has announced a partnership with the Eleanor Crook Foundation, the END Fund, and Rotary International to fund a five-year, $30.1 million nutrition program in Ethiopia.

According to the Power of Nutrition, 5.9 million Ethiopian children under the age of 5 — about 40 percent, compared with a global rate of 22 percent — are affected by stunting (being too short for one's age due to prolonged malnutrition), while 1.2 million are affected by wasting (being too thin for one's height due to severe malnutrition). Those levels are expected to increase due to COVID-19, the impacts of climate change, and likely prolonged conflict in the country.

To be implemented by UNICEF and Action Against Hunger, in partnership with Ethiopia's health ministry, the program is aimed at advancing effective, sustainable approaches to improving women's and children's overall health and life opportunities by combining multiple interventions, strengthening systems, and scaling high-impact health and nutrition services. To that end, the initiative will work to prevent and treat wasting, promote infant and young child feeding practices, and integrate deworming and multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) into routine services. In addition to pooling the funding partners' resources and expertise in public health, development, humanitarian work, and advocacy, the initiative will fund research aimed at improving the quality and coverage of interventions for wasting. Over the five-year period, the program is expected to reach at least a million pregnant women and three million children under the age of 5.

"The effects of malnutrition on a child's physical and mental development can profoundly and permanently limit the trajectory of their lives. When an entire generation suffers from stunting and wasting, families and whole communities and nations are impacted by a catastrophic loss of potential," said Rotary International CEO John Hewko. "As we've learned from our global effort to eradicate polio, we know that by leveraging each of our strengths, we can make a significant impact together to give children in Ethiopia access to nutrition and a chance for a full and healthy future."

(Photo credit: UNICEF/UNI210752/Townsley
Joniste, whose three-year-old son died of Ebola, now works with
children orphaned due to Ebola)