Debt and Malnutrition: Ending the Doom Loop, a report from United Against Malnutrition & Hunger (UAMH), highlights a troubling doom loop between rising sovereign debt and worsening malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2023 alone, LMICs allocated more than US$400 billion to debt repayments, more than they invested in social services like health and education.
The report, commissioned from Informed International, found that as debt repayments rose, nutrition programmes shrank, increasing vulnerability to illness, poor health, and premature death. The foundational nature of nutrition to economic and social development, make these findings particularly alarming, with malnutrition impacting health, learning and productivity. Because malnutrition damages the brain, body, and immune system of each person, it holds back entire countries and their economies and can drive instability and conflict.
Between 2010 and 2023, in the nine LMICs analysed, sovereign debt surged by 250% and debt interest payments tripled compared to government revenues, corresponding with rising malnutrition and hunger. By 2023, one in five people were malnourished, two in five women of reproductive age were anaemic, and one in three children under five were stunted. The report also clearly shows that higher nutrition Official Development Assistance (ODA) correlates with stronger domestic investment by LMICs in their essential services which reduces rates of malnutrition.
The report reveals an increase in the proportion of debt owed to private creditors, often under costly, opaque terms, limiting access to transformative finance. It recommends key reforms to break the doom loop, and turn debt from a barrier to a driver of progress including:
- Protecting nutrition budgets during fiscal crises
- Ringfencing nutrition in ODA
- Promoting debt transparency
- Debt for nutrition swaps, linking debt relief to measurable nutrition outcomes
- Reforming debt sustainability assessments to reflect the impact of debt on nutrition.
With its global financial influence, the UK is well-placed to play a leading role in these reforms.
The report is also available as an Executive Summary, here.