Child malnutrition deepens

At Nsanje District Hospital, Nyamiti Chipendo sits anxiously by the bedside of her nine‑month‑old daughter, admitted with wasting. It is her seventh child, and she has been in hospital for three weeks hoping for recovery.

“Persistent climatic shocks have made our farming efforts almost futile. We fail to harvest enough to feed our family,” she says, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

Hers is story of how Malawi is grappling with alarming levels of child malnutrition, with 38 percent of children under five stunted, 2 percent wasted, 10 percent underweight, and 6 percent overweight.

In Lilongwe’s Chinsapo Township, Chipiliro Kalonga struggles with similar despair. Her one‑year‑old is receiving treatment at Likuni Mission Hospital. She explains that illness during pregnancy limited her ability to breastfeed, while food shortages worsened her child’s condition.

“By the time my child was born, I was struggling with illness and could not provide adequate breast milk in time. Access to food has also been a major challenge, which has worsened our situation. I usually come here for treatment, but outside the hospital, I still struggle to find food,” she said.

At Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), Dipolawo Ngwenya has spent two weeks caring for her malnourished daughter.

“I do not have a husband, so I struggle to support my children. Since starting treatment, there has been improvement, and we hope it continues,” she says.

 KCH’s paediatric ward is recording high admissions of malnourished children from Lilongwe and surrounding districts in the central Region.

Clinical officer in the ward Clemence Chigayo said the hospital registers over 70 admissions of children with severe malnutrition requiring treatment.

“Such admissions are frequent at KCH, and it is a growing concern. Patients come from districts such as Ntchisi and Dowa, and many cannot afford basic meals due to climatic shocks or poverty,” he said.

These individual stories reflect a national crisis. The 2024 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey paints a grim picture: only 8.7 percent of children receive the minimum acceptable diet while just 24 percent meet the required dietary diversity.

The situation is worse in districts repeatedly hit by climatic shocks. Nsanje, Chikwawa, Machinga, and Balaka have endured Cyclones Idai, Gombe, and Ana, El Niño‑induced dry spells, and devastating floods. In these areas, stunting prevalence has reached 40.8 percent, nearly two points above the national average.

In Balaka, principal nutrition officer Madalitso Mwenemurupa reports stunting has risen from 32.6 percent in 2015–16 to 33.7 percent in 2024, largely due to droughts, floods, and prolonged lean seasons.

“This trend is largely attributed to climatic shocks. The district council, together with partners, is implementing various interventions to address the problem, but limited funding continues to affect our efforts,” she said.

Civil Society Organisations Nutrition Alliance (Csona) coordinator Joseph Gausi stresses that climate shocks and malnutrition are inseparable.

“Families lose food and the ability to produce for the next season. Floods contaminate water, leading to diarrhoea and cholera which worsen acute malnutrition. Malawi cannot achieve SDG 2 of Zero Hunger by 2030 if climate shocks keep reversing our nutrition gains,” he warns.

The Ministry of Health acknowledges the crisis with Principal Secretary Beston Chisamile saying recent heavy rains have destroyed crops, worsening food insecurity.

The economic toll is staggering. A Public Finance for Nutrition report ranks Malawi among the worst affected in the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).

It estimates malnutrition costs the country nearly $600 million annually, about 10.3 percent of GDP, through reduced productivity and lost earnings.

For mothers such as Chipendo, Kalonga, and Ngwenya, these statistics are lived realities with children battling hunger, families trapped by climate shocks, and hospitals overwhelmed. Their stories underscore the urgent need for nutrition resilience to be treated as a national priority.

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