United States Announces $100 Million Partnership with Operation End Starvation to Combat Global Child Malnutrition.
New two-year initiative to expand life-saving nutrition assistance for vulnerable children, complementing over $1 billion in humanitarian aid to UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
Washington, D.C.:
The United States has announced a new two-year partnership with Operation End Starvation, committing $100 million to strengthen global efforts to combat severe acute malnutrition and reduce child mortality in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
The initiative, unveiled by the U.S. Department of State, is part of the country’s broader humanitarian assistance strategy and will be implemented through the Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response. The funding is intended to support life-saving nutrition interventions for children at risk of or suffering from severe acute malnutrition, one of the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges.
According to the U.S. government, Operation End Starvation is an American non-governmental organization and public-private partnership established to address global child mortality through targeted nutrition assistance. The partnership aims to maximize efficiency by directly supporting nutrition programmes, ensuring timely procurement and distribution of therapeutic food while reaching vulnerable populations, particularly children under the age of five.
Officials said the collaboration also leverages the generosity of the American private sector and philanthropic organizations, combining public funding with private contributions to expand the reach and impact of nutrition assistance programmes.
The newly announced partnership complements the United States’ recently announced more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). That package includes over $235 million specifically earmarked for life-saving nutrition assistance aimed at tackling acute malnutrition in crisis-affected regions.
The announcement also builds upon the $3.8 billion in prioritized humanitarian assistance recently provided by the United States to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) under its “Humanitarian Reset” framework agreement. The framework is designed to strengthen the UN’s humanitarian response while encouraging institutional reforms to improve the effectiveness and accountability of relief operations.
The U.S. government highlighted that the latest initiative follows the Trump Administration’s $173 million investment in life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025, under which more than 27,000 metric tonnes of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) were delivered across 15 countries. The programme helped provide treatment for nearly 2.7 million children suffering from severe malnutrition.
The United States said the new partnership reflects its continued commitment to addressing global hunger and humanitarian crises by combining government resources with private-sector expertise and philanthropic support. Officials expressed confidence that the collaboration with Operation End Starvation would accelerate the delivery of life-saving nutrition interventions and help reduce preventable child deaths caused by severe acute malnutrition worldwide.
