This blog is written by Jean Michel Grand, Action Against Hunger's Executive Director, a position he has held since 2004. Action Against Hunger is an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger. With 30 years of expertise in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity, Action Against Hunger works to save the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with sustainable access to safe water and long-term solutions to hunger.

The numbers are stark and heartbreaking. Every year, nearly 20 million children across the world suffer from the most severe form of malnutrition. Far away from the headlines, thousands of them die every day. But the outlook for these children does not have to be so grim. Organisations such as Action Against Hunger have made great progress in learning how to address child hunger.

Acutely malnourished children cannot be cured with regular food. Once their bodily systems begin to shut down, they require a therapeutic regimen to re-build lost reserves of nutrients and calories at a rate that does not overwhelm their vital functions.

The first revolution in the treatment of severe malnutrition began in the 1990s when new therapeutic milk formulas were developed which helped to drastically reduce the mortality rate of severely malnourished children from 25% to 5%. The milk formula was administered in intensive-care units that were staffed around the clock by medical professionals with access to the clean water they needed to dilute the product. Children, accompanied by their mothers, were treated in clinics for over a month.

However, facilities are costly and can never meet demand. Many parents also face large challenges in leaving their homes for the duration of the treatment, as Rose's story illustrates.

Rose, a mother of three, lives in Malawi. She and her husband are farmers, who grow maize during the rainy season, which provides them with sufficient food for a few months only.

During the rest of the year, Rose and her family must rely on food they receive in return for daily labour. When Rose's 18 months old daughter became severely malnourished, Rose took her for treatment at the clinic. During her month-long stay at the clinic, her family's food supply dropped by half as Rose was unable to work. Her daughter recovered but her absence from home put her other children in a precarious situation.

Because of these hurdles only about 3% of malnourished children received treatment in any given year. This poor coverage rate is something that has troubled agencies that specialise in treating and preventing child hunger for many years.

It is from this basis that the second revolution began. The development of innovative nutrient-dense nutritional products known as ready-to-use therapeutic foods has transformed the treatment of malnutrition. It is a treatment that can be administered in community settings, when malnutrition is not accompanied by additional medical complications.

The introduction of this community-based outpatient model empowers parents and eliminates the need for expensive medical facilities.

The most widely-used product is called Plumpy'Nut, a peanut-based paste available in serving-sized foil packets that withstand heat and have a long shelf-life.

Plumpy'Nut can be stored easily, does not require preparation and requires no dilution with water, thus avoiding contamination from unclean water sources.

For mothers like Rose, this new approach means that they can continue working and looking after their children while ensuring children receive the treatment they need.

With treatment provided closer to home, it is possible to significantly scale-up treatment and reach more children than ever before. Community health workers can be trained to diagnose and treat child hunger. If national health structures can be improved, the numbers of children that access this product could be rapidly increased.

So why do children continue to die from hunger-related causes if we know how to save them?

Why is it that while huge strides are made to reduce child mortality worldwide, the world continues to ignore the silent killer of malnutrition?

One myth is that hunger and malnutrition is too complex, ignoring the fact that its causes have been analysed rigorously and humanitarian organisations now have the tools to save every malnourished child worldwide.

Another myth is that addressing malnutrition is too expensive. Yet only £4.5 - 9.1bn is needed to scale up community treatment models worldwide, far less than was needed to save the rich world's banks.

Nearly 20 million children worldwide are at risk of dying. The solutions are out there. Why are we waiting to act?

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