In 2024, the health and well-being of millions of children remained under intense threat due to several factors including conflict, inequality, climate change and systemic fragility.

Poor nutrition a significant cause of child mortality

In the last 30 years, the world has actually seen a dramatic drop—nearly 60 per cent—in child and maternal deaths. Yet despite this progress, 4.9 million children under the age of five still died in 2022. An estimated 2.3 million children didn’t survive their first month of life. That’s more than the entire population of children under five in Canada.

Poor nutrition is often the cause of these preventable deaths. According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition contributes to 45 per cent of all child deaths globally. Today, 148.1 million children under five are chronically malnourished—a condition known as stunting that limits both physical growth and brain development.

An additional 45 million suffer from wasting, meaning they are dangerously thin for their height, often due to a lack of quality food or infections that cause weight loss. The most severe cases of wasting are deadly—children with these conditions are 11 times more likely to die than their healthier peers.

Did you know? 41 children’s lives are saved every week through World Vision Canada’s malnutrition programs.

Stunting and wasting are not the only threats to children’s good nutrition. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, two out of five children suffered from anemia in lower- and middle-income countries, making them vulnerable to infections and inhibiting their ability to learn. The situation is even more dire for girls and boys in Africa, where three out of five are affected by anemia.

The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia—major producers of wheat, fertilizer and fuel—has further strained the global food system, making nutritious diets harder to access. And despite efforts to control costs, the price of life-saving therapeutic food for malnourished children has still risen by nine per cent.

Disproportionate challenges for women and adolescent girls

The impact of poor nutrition doesn’t end with children. Iron deficiency anemia affects nearly one in three women globally and is responsible for approximately 40 per cent of maternal deaths. Lack of nutrition and access to proper care limits opportunities for girls and women to pursue education, work or build better lives.

Each day, close to 800 women —the vast majority in developing countries—die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. For adolescent mothers, the risks are even higher. More than 160 million women and girls of reproductive age would like to delay or prevent pregnancy, but cannot access contraception because of limited availability or social and cultural barriers that prevent them from making their own choices on the matter.

Meanwhile, the number of young people facing mental health challenges is also rising. Since the pandemic, global rates of anxiety and depression have increased by 25 per cent, with young people and females at higher risk. Mental health accounts for 14 per cent of the total disease burden worldwide—yet 81 per cent of those impacted live in low- and middle-income countries, where support is often out of reach.

Health and nutrition in fragile contexts

In 2024, an estimated 1.9 billion people —one in four globally—were living in fragile contexts, areas marked by conflict and instability, where access to healthcare and nutrition is especially difficult.

These settings account for 70 per cent of epidemic-prone diseases, 60 per cent of maternal deaths and more than half of all child deaths under five. With 110 million people displaced due to conflict or persecution, and projections showing that two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in fragile contexts by 2030, the urgency to act is growing.

World Vision Canada’s response

In the face of these global health challenges, World Vision Canada is working alongside communities to reduce illness, strengthen health systems, and save lives—especially among vulnerable children, adolescent girls and women of reproductive age.

We engage at every level of society to ensure sustainable, community-driven health improvements.

In 2024, this work led to significant results:

• 43,487 malnourished children were admitted to therapeutic nutrition programs—more than all the children four and under living in Nova Scotia.
• 11,501 pregnant or lactating women received maternal health and nutrition services—nearly the number of women who gave birth in Saskatchewan last year.
• 32,306 girls and boys were immunized against common illnesses—enough children to fill 83 Canadian schools.

NOTE: This article is adapted from World Vision’s 2024 Annual Results Report.