Stretched but strategic: why we must keep the prevention of undernutrition in focus

Protracted crises, driven by conflict, climate shocks, displacement and economic turbulence, are expanding vulnerability and increasing the numbers of children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and adolescent girls affected by undernutrition. Whilst there is now a broad recognition of the need for multisectoral preventive action, operationalising it remains elusive. As a result, humanitarian nutrition has become trapped in a treatment reflex, diverting limited resources to the treatment of wasted children, while paying insufficient attention to addressing risk factors that could prevent their deterioration.

A treatment-only approach is a false economy – it waits for harm, fuels recurrence of undernutrition, and leaves structural drivers untouched. Prevention and treatment are not interchangeable actions but concurrent ones, and in protracted crises this dual track is both ethical and efficient. Prevention works best when it is designed and driven locally, and when preventive action is expected rather than optional. The choice is not prevention or treatment – it is a balanced portfolio that reduces risk earlier and lowers caseloads over time to shrink tomorrow’s caseload today.

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