Background: The nutritional status of children is an indicator of a country's health status. Malnutrition, especially child undernutrition, is a major health issue affecting the development of children in many developing countries. As a result, it is the leading cause of ill-health, premature mortality, morbidity, economic loss, poor school outcomes, and cognitive development among children. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of child malnutrition on GDP, school outcomes, and cognitive development. Methodology: The systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines published in 2009. Searches were conducted in the ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases for studies included in this review. These searches were then saved in Mendeley Desktop for review and reference. Results: We retrieved 1580 articles after removing duplicates from the databases, of which 20 met our inclusion criteria. The results of the study indicate that child malnutrition negatively impacts school outcomes, cognitive development, and GDP. Conclusion: Since nutrition affects life outcomes and society's ability to advance, the government must ensure that school-based feeding programs are more effective and educate the community about nutrition and health by explicitly linking nutritional targets, interventions, and indicators with health, education, social development, and other related policy areas.