Addressing Child Malnutrition in Somalia: Beyond Humanitarian Responses

Child malnutrition in Somalia represents one of the most severe and protracted public health crises of the contemporary era, rooted not solely in acute food scarcity but in a complex architecture of structural failures, governance deficits, climate vulnerability, and inadequate health system capacity. An estimated 1.7 million children under five years of age in Somalia faced acute malnutrition in 2025, including 466,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 1.2 million cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). This commentary argues that meaningful progress against child malnutrition in Somalia demands a decisive shift away from perpetual emergency response cycles toward integrated, development-oriented, and sustainably funded national strategies. We examine the epidemiological burden, the structural determinants of malnutrition, the limitations of exclusively humanitarian approaches, and propose a multi-sectoral framework encompassing health system strengthening, food system transformation, nutrition-sensitive social protection, gender-responsive programming, and community-based management. Addressing child malnutrition in Somalia is not merely a humanitarian imperative but a foundational prerequisite for national development.