27/07/2025
The National Cost of Inaction on Malnutrition: A Case of Katsina State - Yusuf Hassan
Over the past week, social media has been abuzz with heated debates about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), while the harsh truth remains: our people are dying of hunger. Critics argue that too much philanthropic funding goes into things that don’t matter, but the numbers tell a different, more alarming story. Today, an estimated 828 million people across the globe are uncertain about their next meal. Worse still, around 900,000 people are living in famine-like conditions — a figure that’s ten times higher than it was just five years ago, according to the World Food Programme. Every single day, hunger and undernutrition claim the lives of around 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children. And this grim reality continues to worsen, fueled by climate shocks, conflict, and economic instability. But this article isn’t just about hunger. It’s about the cost — not just human, but economic and developmental — of doing nothing.
Last year, I attended the Goalkeepers event hosted by the Gates Foundation in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, where nutrition and food system innovations were central themes. Bill Gates, who has funded numerous interventions aimed at ending malnutrition, once remarked: “If I had a magic wand that I could wave and cure any disease, let me surprise you … I would pick malnutrition, because it destroys so much human potential.” And he’s right.
Malnutrition is one of the most costly health burdens in the world — not just in terms of money, but in lives lost and futures destroyed. One in every three people on the planet suffers from the consequences of poor nutrition. It weakens immune systems, impairs brain and physical development, increases susceptibility to disease, and drives up mortality rates. On a systemic level, it stunts economies, fuels poverty, overwhelms health systems, and slows down national development.
A recent report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) revealed that over 650 children died from severe acute malnutrition in Katsina State in just the first six months of 2025. Katsina, with an estimated population of 10 million — nearly half of whom are children — is also one of the country’s hardest-hit states in terms of poor health outcomes. Alarmingly, 15 of its LGAs are among the 172 nationwide that account for more than 75% of Nigeria’s maternal and neonatal deaths, giving Nigeria the tragic distinction of having one of the highest such mortality rates globally. These are not just numbers. These are lives that could have been saved with the right action.
But what if we had better insights? What if we could quantify exactly how much our nation and sub-national levels lose economically by failing to act on malnutrition? What if we could show the number of lives improved — especially for women, children, and adolescents — by investing in proven nutrition solutions? With that data, policymakers would be equipped to make better decisions. Will they do better? But, they could see how malnutrition affects education, gender equality, economic productivity, and health systems — and how urgent it is to change course. Such evidence would guide smarter investments and prioritize high-impact interventions that are both affordable and scalable. It would catalyze progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals and help build stronger, healthier societies.
And the crisis doesn’t end with children. Pregnant and lactating mothers — the very people responsible for the next generation — are suffering too. MSF reported a sharp increase in critically malnourished children arriving at treatment centers. Between January and June 2025 alone, nearly 70,000 malnourished children were treated in Katsina, with about 10,000 requiring hospitalization.
The underlying causes are well known: poverty, conflict, inequality, rising debt, poor access to quality healthcare, and now worsening economic and security conditions that are disrupting food and health systems. But they all point to one thing — a global and local failure to take malnutrition seriously enough. It's one of the most preventable causes of human suffering, and yet remains deeply neglected.
At the World Health Assembly in Geneva this May, member states endorsed the extension of global nutrition targets through 2030. While this commitment is important, it doesn’t automatically translate into action — especially in countries like Nigeria, where the disconnect between political leadership and real-world challenges remains painfully evident. The hard disconnect in a federation is how the federal system and states are more disconnected. One such area of neglect is family planning, which could play a significant role in improving maternal and child health outcomes, including nutrition. But policymakers often treat it as a luxury or an afterthought. In the past decade, the proportion of women whose family planning
