Strengthen USAID's strategic approach to the prevention and treatment of wasting, with an aim to address the significant burden of wasting in non-emergency contexts in alignment with the Global Action Plan for Child Wasting (GAP).

USAID is the single largest donor globally for the treatment of wasting, however the vast majority of this support occurs in humanitarian settings, with emergency funds. Recognizing that a significant proportion of the wasting burden occurs in non-emergency contexts, USAID commits to a strategic assessment of opportunities to support the treatment and prevention of wasting through health and food systems. This will require a two-pronged approach: 1) an overarching agreed approach to USAID’s added value on wasting in non-emergency contexts, and 2) supporting field Missions to apply this in their country contexts through their country-level budgets. To this end, USAID will seek alignment with the Global Action Plan for Child Wasting and the associated Road Maps, and USAID/Washington will work with USAID/Missions to first familiarize them with the GAP and process, support them to engage with other stakeholders at the country level, and finally identify specific opportunities for USAID support.

Simultaneously, USAID’s Wasting Technical Working Group (WTWG) will build on an earlier set of consultations across colleagues representing humanitarian programming, health systems, and food systems, to continue documenting current experiences and identifying gaps and opportunities for wasting management programming. The group will begin to draft a sub-strategy on wasting focused on health systems and food systems, will collect input from the broader USAID nutrition community, and acquire leadership support.