Policy Brief: Broken Systems, Empty Plates in a World of Plenty

This advocacy briefing draws on qualitative and participatory evidence from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, and the West Bank grounded in the lived experiences of children, adolescents, caregivers, and communities, and informed by World Vision research conducted between 2024 and 2025. Through child-led and participatory research, Nutrition Dialogues, and contextual analysis, the briefing captures how children, families and communities experience hunger and poor nutrition in everyday life — not only as a lack of food, but as a challenge that affects health, learning, wellbeing, and dignity. 

By examining these experiences side by side, the policy paper identifies clear commonalities, while also highlighting important differences in how hunger and poor nutrition are experienced. Across all contexts, children and communities describe similar pressures — rising food prices, declining incomes, weakened public services, and repeated shocks — even as these factors are shaped by distinct political, economic, and environmental realities. 

Most consistently, the briefing shows that food affordability — rather than food availability — is the factor impacting hunger and children and adolescents’ diets. Food may be present in markets or communities, but nutritious options are increasingly out of reach as prices rise, livelihoods are disrupted, and support systems are strained. Children and caregivers describe being forced to prioritise filling but low-nutrient foods, reduce dietary diversity, and make difficult trade-offs that affect physical health, emotional wellbeing, and children’s ability to learn. These challenges are compounded by climate shocks, conflict, and economic instability, further limiting families’ capacity to provide nutritious diets for their children. 

Children’s experiences also highlight how hunger is closely interconnected with mental health, education, gender inequality, and protection risks. Hunger contributes to stress, shame, and anxiety; disrupts school attendance and engagement; reinforces harmful gender norms; and increases reliance on negative coping strategies, including child labour. While communities often mobilise to support one another, children and caregivers emphasise that these efforts cannot replace reliable systems and services. 

The briefing therefore calls for urgent, integrated, and gender-transformative action that strengthens food affordability, improves the quality and reach of school meals, supports children’s mental health and learning, addresses harmful social norms, and embeds nutrition across health, education, social protection, and child protection systems — so that all children can survive and thrive.