Unaffordable food, not scarcity, driving child hunger across the Middle East and Eastern Europe, new World Vision brief finds

27 March 2026 – Hunger across parts of the Middle East and Eastern Europe is increasingly driven by economic exclusion and systemic failures rather than a lack of food availability, according to a new policy brief released by World Vision, drawing on evidence from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, and the West Bank.

The policy brief highlights a consistent pattern across all four contexts: food remains available in markets but is becoming progressively unaffordable as households face declining incomes, rising prices, and weakened public systems.

Key findings include:

• Food affordability is the primary driver of poor diets across the region, with households unable to consistently access nutritious food.
• Climate change and environmental degradation are acting as risk multipliers, worsening food insecurity and undermining nutrition outcomes.
• Nutrition knowledge gaps are reducing diet quality and limiting families’ ability to make healthy food choices.
• Schools are critical nutrition spaces that influence both learning and children’s wellbeing.
• Community mobilisation plays a critical buffering role in reducing the impacts of food insecurity and poor nutrition.

“Children are not just eating less, they are eating worse. Caregivers consistently describe being forced to make daily trade-offs between food quantity and quality, often prioritising inexpensive, calorie-dense foods while reducing dietary diversity” said Eleanor Monbiot, Regional Leader at World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe. “These are not short-term adjustments, they are eroding children’s health, affecting how they grow, how they learn, and how they cope each day.”

In Afghanistan, economic contraction and climate pressures have compelled families to sell nutrient-rich foods immediately after production to meet basic needs, undermining household consumption. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, persistent gaps in coordination across social sectors and rising living costs are limiting access to preventive nutrition support. In Lebanon, prolonged economic crisis and inflation have significantly eroded purchasing power, disrupting the relationship between employment and food access. In the West Bank, income loss and access restrictions have sharply reduced households’ ability to afford food, even where markets remain functional.

World Vision evidence further underscores that hunger is not solely a nutritional issue, but one with significant psychosocial and developmental implications. Children across all contexts report heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and social exclusion linked to food insecurity, alongside reduced concentration, school absenteeism, and increased exposure to child labour.

“Food insecurity is having multidimensional impacts on children, extending beyond physical health to affect mental wellbeing, educational engagement, and social inclusion,” Monbiot said. “These effects are cumulative and, if unaddressed, risk undermining long-term human capital development.”

Climate change and environmental degradation are identified as key risk multipliers, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities by disrupting livelihoods, increasing food prices, and constraining access to water and productive resources. At the same time, structural inequalities, including gender norms, displacement, and poverty, continue to shape who is most affected, with women and girls disproportionately bearing the burden of food insecurity.

The findings also highlight the critical role of schools as protective environments. Where school-based meal programmes and nutrition support are in place, they contribute to improved attendance, learning outcomes, and psychosocial wellbeing. However, provision remains uneven across contexts, limiting their potential as reliable safety nets.

World Vision calls on governments, donors, UN agencies and partners to scale up predictable, shock-responsive cash and voucher assistance, expand nutritious school meal programmes, and strengthen social protection systems to prevent harmful coping strategies, including reduced dietary diversity. 

We also urge more integrated action across nutrition, health, education, social protection and climate resilience, linking cash support with nutrition and mental health services, investing in climate-resilient livelihoods and water systems, and ensuring programmes are designed and delivered with the meaningful participation of women, children and adolescents.
 

Notes to Editor: 

About World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe: World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe (WV MEER) is a regional office of World Vision International, a global humanitarian organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. WV MEER works across more than 15 fragile and crisis-affected contexts to protect children, strengthen families, and build resilient communities through humanitarian response, development programmes, child participation, and advocacy.

For more information & media, please contact:

Laurentia Jora | Middle East & Eastern Europe Emergency Communications Specialist | Email: laurentia_jora@wvi.org