The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has announced new support from the Weiss Asset Management Foundation, which is investing nearly US$1 million to strengthen cost-efficiency in malnutrition treatment. The funding will support the Malnutrition Optimization to Scale Treatment (MOST) initiative, led by IRC through the Dioptra Consortium, at a time when humanitarian budgets are shrinking and accountability pressures are rising.
Acute malnutrition affects more than 40 million children worldwide, yet fewer than one in three receive treatment. MOST aims to close this gap by improving cost evidence generation and use in programming decisions. The initiative seeks to boost the cost-efficiency of malnutrition programming by 20 percent, potentially enabling tens of thousands more children to be treated with existing resources.
The Weiss Asset Management Foundation emphasized the importance of evidence-based, cost-effective programs in maximizing social returns. By supporting Dioptra’s rigorous, real-time approach, the partnership aims to extend lifesaving care at scale. IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab noted that NGOs are not just intermediaries but implementers embedded in communities, making daily decisions that determine how resources translate into outcomes. Dioptra equips them to maximize donor funding impact.
MOST will help consortium members and the wider sector by identifying key efficiency questions, generating comparable cost analyses across contexts, modeling resource requirements, and synthesizing evidence into practical recommendations for implementers and donors. Past Dioptra-informed analyses have already led organizations to redesign interventions and optimize delivery models in other sectors.
The Dioptra Consortium represents major humanitarian and development organizations managing around US$5 billion in aid annually. Members include IRC, CARE, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, and Acción contra el Hambre. MOST reflects their shared commitment to ensuring every dollar spent on malnutrition treatment goes further, reaching more children and saving more lives.
