The HALO Trust, in partnership with the Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF), has released a new policy paper highlighting the urgent and interconnected challenges of modern conflict, food insecurity, and malnutrition – and the critical role that integrated responses can play in breaking this cycle.
Despite decades of progress, malnutrition remains one of the leading threats to child survival. Malnutrition remains one of the most urgent and preventable threats to child survival globally, and recent global funding cuts risk reversing hard-won gains. Conflict is now the primary driver of acute food insecurity in the world’s most fragile contexts, disrupting food systems, displacing communities, and restricting access to life-saving nutrition services.
The paper underscores how explosive contamination – including landmines and unexploded ordnance – deepens these challenges. In many conflict-affected regions, unsafe land prevents families from farming, blocks access to markets and health facilities, and undermines the recovery of local food systems. As the report highlights:
