Additional Context: In Ethiopia, nearly half of all children suffer from stunting due to malnutrition and lack of antenatal follow-up care. The long-term impacts of stunting on the country’s workforce in 10-15 years could be significant and pose great risks for the country’s productivity, peace, security, and gross domestic product.

This information was first published in a June 2025 research brief by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) entitled "Shuttered Clinics, Preventable Deaths: The Impact of U.S. Global Health Funding Cuts in Ethiopia." This PHR research brief presents key insights from interviews with 10 medical and public health experts who support projects across Ethiopia, including in Addis Ababa and Tigray, and data on the impact of the funding cuts across Ethiopia. This brief has a specific focus on Tigray, where impacts of regional tensions have exacerbated by cuts to global health aid between February and May 2025.

Source: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)

Devex Researcher Note: Stunting is a form of malnutrition where a child is significantly shorter than expected for their age, a condition caused by chronic, long-term malnutrition. According to the World Health Organization, "Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.” Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. Stunting in early life, particularly in the first 1,000 days from conception until the age of two, has adverse functional consequences on the child.