Officials at the Nutrition Section of the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services had planned to start treatment for children with moderately acute malnutrition. But the plan could not materialise as the government slashed the annual healthcare budget.

Moderate acute malnutrition, also known as wasting, corresponds to a weight-for-height indicator between 3 and 2 standard deviations below the mean.

Treatment of moderately acute malnourished children is one of the Nutrition Section’s programmes affected by budget cuts.

The budget cut has also affected several other of the section’s programmes planned for the ongoing fiscal year—expansion of Outpatient Therapeutic Care (OTC) across all health posts in the country, expansion of nutrition rehabilitation homes, and imparting training to health workers about treatment to malnourished children, and purchase of equipment to measure the height and weight of the children.

“How can we expect better results or lessen the existing burden of malnutrition by stopping investments?” questioned Lila Bikram Thapa, chief of the Nutrition Section. “Several nutrition programmes have been affected by the budgetary cuts, which would have a direct impact on nutritional conditions.”

Malnutrition is considered a silent health crisis in Nepal. The country has made significant progress in reducing stunting among children under five. Stunting decreased from 57 percent in 2001 to 25 percent in 2022, according to a preliminary report of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey-2022.

Wasting, a debilitating disease that causes muscle and fat tissues to waste away among children under five, decreased from 11 percent in 2001 to eight percent in 2022.

Wasting or low weight for one’s height in children, if not treated properly and on time, is associated with a higher mortality risk, according to the World Health Organisation. However, the decision to cut the annual budget of the health care programmes, including nutrition, jeopardises all existing achievements, experts warn.

Officials at the Ministry of Health and Population said that around 35 percent of the health budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been slashed, which would have a direct impact on the ongoing programmes of healthcare.

Experts say malnutrition also affects children’s mental growth, which in turn undermines the country’s economic health. It weakens intellectual capacity, limits productivity in adulthood, and increases vulnerability to certain diseases.

Thapa said moderately acute malnutrition is a condition that will lead to severe acute malnutrition if children are not treated on time.

Even though a preliminary report of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey-2022 showed some improvement in the country’s overall nutrition status, the progress is not the same in all provinces.

More than 16 percent of the children under five years of age in Lumbini Province have been found to be suffering from wasting, the most immediate, visible, and life-threatening form of malnutrition.

Likewise, around 10 percent of children under the age of five years in Madhesh Province have been found suffering from wasting.

Nutrition experts say the government’s plan to achieve the United Nations-backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be met by slashing the budgets of crucial nutrition programmes.

SDGs, a follow-up on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aim to end poverty and hunger and all forms of inequality in the world by 2030, and Nepal has committed to meeting the goals.

Nepal also has an international obligation to improve the condition of malnourished children.

The country needs to reduce stunting to 15 percent from the existing 32 percent by 2030 in order to meet the SDG targets, wasting to four percent from the current eight percent, underweight condition to 10 percent from the existing 19, and anaemia to 10 percent from more than 43 percent at present.