‘Wasting Reset’: wasting prevention, early detection and treatment to catalyse action and accountability- Solutions from the advocacy working group

In recent years, whilst there has been an increase in interest and investment aimed at reducing wasting, including strong support from national governments, the pace of progress is much too slow to reach global goals and targets. We therefore need a ‘reset’ of childhood wasting prevention, early detection and treatment. This reset aims to galvanise multiple stakeholders around the key actions needed to stimulate progress and ensure accountability in the 2022-2030 period, and will be used by governments and organisations to inform their political and financial commitments to tackling wasting.

To provide technical recommendations on what needs to be done to significantly reduce child wasting, six independent working groups (WGs) were established. These WGs were made up of representatives of more than 40 organisations and governments, who discussed and agreed upon key messages and actions.

The key messages from this Working Group were: 

• High-level political commitment is needed to ensure that addressing child wasting is prioritised. Multi-sector and multi-stakeholder engagement is key to sustaining this political will. The Nutrition for Growth Summit provides a crucial opportunity to make such high level commitments.
• Creating meaningful mechanisms for accountability is essential to ensure the commitments made bring about real and sustained change.