Country: World Source: International Rescue Committee New York, NY, May 6, 2026 — As humanitarian funding contracts and scrutiny of aid spending intensifies, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is doubling down on a simple but underutilized truth: cost evidence can save lives. IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab is pleased to announce new support from the Weiss Asset Management Foundation, which is investing almost US $1 million to help identify and scale cost-efficiency gains in the delivery of malnutrition treatment. The Malnutrition Optimization to Scale Treatment (MOST) initiative will be led by IRC through the Dioptra Consortium. Acute malnutrition affects over 40 million children globally. Yet despite the existence of highly effective care, fewer than one in three children receive needed treatment. MOST aims to help close this gap by strengthening cost evidence generation and use to inform programming decisions – ultimately helping more children access treatment. This effort aims to improve the cost-efficiency of Dioptra Consortium malnutrition programming by 20 percent – a shift that could enable tens of thousands more children to be treated with existing resources. This funding comes at a pivotal moment. Shrinking budgets are forcing sharper tradeoffs – placing greater emphasis on evidence, accountability, and value for money. Leigh Fraiser, Managing Director, Weiss Asset Management Foundation, said, ‘The Weiss Asset Management Foundation funds evidence-based, cost-effective, and scalable programs that we believe deliver high risk-adjusted social returns. In a funding-constrained environment, improving cost-efficiency in malnutrition treatment is one of the most direct ways to extend lifesaving care, and Dioptra’s rigorous, real-time approach could help do so at scale. Our partnership comes at an important moment for the sector and reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that limited resources reach as many children as possible.’ MOST will support Dioptra Consortium member organizations – and the broader sector – to improve the delivery of malnutrition treatment by: Identifying decision-relevant questions that would unlock the greatest efficiency gains in program delivery Generating comparable cost-efficiency analyses using the Dioptra tool across contexts and implementing models Using consortium-wide data to model resource requirements and efficiency impacts of different program design choices Synthesizing cross-organization evidence into practical, public recommendations for implementers and donors ‘Across sectors, Dioptra-informed analyses have caused organizations to shift delivery models, redesign interventions, and reallocate resources toward more effective approaches, from adjusting training modalities in education programs to optimizing supply chains in food assistance,’ said Paige Kirby, Senior Advisor for Best Use of Resources at the IRC. ‘Too often, NGOs are framed primarily as intermediaries – pass-through actors in a system of funding flows. That framing obscures an important reality: NGOs are implementers embedded in communities, making daily decisions that determine how resources translate into outcomes. Dioptra equips NGOs to become partners in maximizing the effectiveness of donor funding. With the support of the WAM Foundation, Dioptra will continue to push toward a future where every dollar spent on malnutrition treatment goes further – reaching more children, saving more lives, and strengthening the case for effective, community-grounded humanitarian action.’ At a time of growing need and constrained resources, partnerships like this are critical to ensuring humanitarian funding delivers maximum impact. #### ENDS About the Dioptra Consortium: The Dioptra Consortium represents major development and humanitarian organizations responsible for implementing approximately $5 billion in aid programs annually. Dioptra members commit to generating, sharing, and using cost evidence to improve their own program delivery and inform sector-wide learning. MOST represents a subset of Dioptra’s membership focused on malnutrition, including IRC, CARE, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, and Acción contra el Hambre. Media contacts Chiara Trincia International Rescue Committee [email protected] IRC Global Communications [email protected]