Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached ‘alarming’ levels since aid cuts, survey finds
Key takeaways
- A child is weighed in Bajura district in Nepal in 2022.
- The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal.
- A senior Nepalese nutrition expert, who ran programmes in the country that were axed in the US aid cuts, said she worried that hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over the past 20 years were at risk.
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A child is weighed in Bajura district in Nepal in 2022. Death rates among the under-fives declined in the country by 72% between 1996 and 2022. Photograph: Rebecca Conway/Getty Images View image in fullscreen. A child is weighed in Bajura district in Nepal in 2022. Death rates among the under-fives declined in the country by 72% between 1996 and 2022. Photograph: Rebecca Conway/Getty Images Global development Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached ‘alarming’ levels since aid cuts, survey finds Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmes
About this contentKat Lay, Global health correspondentFri 26 Jun 2026 08.00 BSTLast modified on Fri 26 Jun 2026 08.02 BSTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleChild malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country.
The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal.