Policy Paper by The HALO Trust and Eleanor Crook Foundation
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Malnutrition remains one of the most urgent and preventable threats to child survival globally. Significant progress has been made in recent decades in areas such as water and sanitation in children that has declined from 52 million in 2016 to 42.8 million by 2024.
However, global funding cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2025 – alongside trends towards escalating conflict and displacement – now threaten to reverse hard-won gains. Both protracted and emerging conflicts undermine food systems and restrict access to life-saving treatment such as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). According to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), conflict remains the main driver of acute food insecurity in the countries with the worst food crises.
The United Kingdom is uniquely positioned to be a global leader on tackling malnutrition and conflict. It has significant experience through its academic institutions, civil society, its branches of government, including the FCDO, and through partnerships with civil society and convening power at the multilateral level, through institutions such as the UN and NATO. The UK is also widely recognised as a global leader in Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA), with decades of operational experience and diplomatic leadership that help create the conditions for stability, recovery, and safe access to food, services, and livelihoods. Addressing malnutrition and conflict is integral to the UK Government achieving its foreign policy objectives set out in their 2024 manifesto, from development, economic growth, tackling migration, to building the UK’s reputation on the global stage.
This paper therefore, sets out a clear means for the UK to strengthen its global leadership by promoting a more integrated and effective approach to conflict recovery and development. It highlights the links between malnutrition and conflict and demonstrates how integrated interventions –particularly those that combine nutrition services with landmine clearance and agricultural recovery – can unlock long-term resilience and stability in fragile and conflict-affected states. By aligning these interventions, the UK can also deliver better value for money across its defence, diplomacy and development programmes, maximising impact per pound spent.