Hunger and nutrition

Many households will meet minimum food needs only by depleting essential livelihood assets – a sharp deterioration compared with the previous year.

A production-based model, per September 2025 talks, could align incentives, but unions fear diluted guarantees. The government eyes hybrid funding, yet delays breed unrest.

The report calls for the government and industry joining hands to strengthen social protection, enforce labour laws, and support climate adaptation.

The launch, done together with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF in Bhutan,  coincides with UNICEF’s new global child nutrition report, which finds that overweight and obesity are rising fast among children, including in Bhutan.

With each mother who learns to cook a new, nutritious meal, and each spoonful of semolina porridge lovingly fed to a child, the cycle of poverty and poor health begins to break.

Using self-reported questionnaires, the survey assessed aspects such as alcohol and drug use, eating habits, physical activity levels, psychosocial wellbeing, injuries, exposure to violence and skipping meals due to food insufficiency.

Combined, malaria and malnutrition constitute a “double health burden” that traps the most vulnerable – especially children under five years of age – in a deadly cycle.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has sounded a dire warning about Afghanistan’s escalating hunger crisis, as an economic downturn, recurring droughts, and the forced return of thousands of Afghan migrants strain the country’s fragile infrastructure and limited resources.