USAID’s maternal and child nutrition programs are advancing the Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act by scaling up programs and activities to prevent and treat malnutrition globally.
Our investments in maternal and child nutrition support high-impact interventions that address the immediate, health-related causes of malnutrition to save lives by bringing evidence-based investments in health and food systems and humanitarian response together.
USAID's nutrition programs are guided by the following evidence-based strategies:
USAID’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy 2014–2025 promotes a multisectoral approach to address both direct and underlying causes of malnutrition, and acknowledges the critical links between humanitarian assistance and development programming to help build resilience to shocks in vulnerable communities. USAID works with partners to scale up effective, integrated nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions, programs, and systems across humanitarian and development contexts.
U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy 2022-2026, which guides the Feed the Future initiative, includes both a whole-of-government strategy and a USAID-specific implementation plan with both integrated food security and maternal and child health investments. A corresponding Global Food Security Research Strategy guides interagency research investments that include nutrition.
The U.S. Government Global Nutrition Coordination Plan 2021-2026 was designed to create a platform for coordination and collaboration across relevant U.S. agencies to leverage and enhance our nutrition efforts and investments and to develop a common narrative for the U.S. Government's (USG) goals for global nutrition, facilitating a stronger whole-of-government approach to global nutrition.
Nutrition programming at USAID is coordinated and implemented by:
Access to essential nutrition services within the health system can ensure that children and families have optimal diets, stronger immune systems, and a lower risk of disease—improving everyone’s overall health. USAID's Bureau for Global Health helps countries strengthen their ability to deliver and monitor nutrition services—particularly for pregnant and lactating women, children, and newborns—through existing health structures, such as: counseling for breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding practices, monitoring child growth, and providing micronutrient supplements.
Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance
USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance provides lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including critical nutrition services, to the world’s most vulnerable and hard to reach populations. Humanitarian crises exacerbate nutritional risks, particularly for women and children, and often lead to an increase in acute malnutrition, or wasting. Emergencies can have a negative impact on infant and young child feeding practices and micronutrient status of vulnerable groups.
Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
Food systems must function to deliver safe, affordable, and nutritious food year-round, particularly for women and children. Leveraging its decades-long leadership in combating global hunger, USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security ensures food systems deliver for nutrition alongside delivering good jobs and greater food security.