New Nutrition Policy Papers for WFP
WFP's executive board has recently endorsed three nutrition policy papers. This coincides with a raised profile for nutrition within the organisation. One of the papers deals exclusively with nutrition in emergencies but should be read in conjunction with the two other policy papers 'Food for Nutrition: Mainstreaming Nutrition in WFP' and 'Micronutrient Fortification: WFP Experiences and Ways Forward'.
The 'Nutrition in Emergency' paper states at the outset that WFP and its partners have made significant strides in the last decade towards tackling malnutrition in emergencies and that food interventions play an important part in saving lives through their impact on the nutrition and health of affected populations. The paper stresses that humanitarian interventions aiming to prevent deterioration or promote recovery of nutritional status have to be carefully tailored to the nature of each crisis and seek to address underlying causes. It outlines three elements crucial to successful action.
- That a nutritionally appropriate food basket is formulated to meet local needs and that it is coordinated and arrives on time, not one commodity one month and another the next. Some food commodities are needed in small amounts, for example iodized salt and fortified blended foods, but their inclusion and delivery are often critical to positive nutrition outcomes. The importance of micronutrients in achieving the goals of emergency operations is increasingly understood and there is evidence of the need for greater use of fortified foods than in the past.
- Coupling food with essential nonfood inputs is important in nutrition programming. WFP requires cash resources for a variety of nutrition and public health activities, including local milling/fortification of cereals, local procurement of fortified blended foods and support for complementary activities such as nutrition education, training and de-worming. An ability to offer sustained improvements in nutrition will therefore depend on strong collaboration with partners skilled in nutrition and public health and information management.
- Improved linking of emergency programming with non-emergency activities is required so that underlying processes contributing to malnutrition can be effectively tackled in the long run.
For further information contact; Rita Bhatia at Rita.Bhatia@WFP.ORG
More like this
FEX: Influence of USAID policies on food aid: time for reform?
Summary of published paper1 A paper has recently been published which describes the food commodities that are used in U.S emergency food aid programmes, and outlines issues in...
FEX: Assessing the economic value of fortified foods
Summary of published paper1 CSB distribution in Ethiopia In some communities an affordable nutritionally adequate diet based on local foods may be difficult to achieve...
NEX: Delivering high-quality, locally produced and fortified blended food products in West Africa
Sofia Condes is a public health economist working for GAIN in the Food Policy and Finance Team, with a focus on francophone Africa and Latin America. Jennifer Dahdah is a...
FEX: The use and acceptability of micronutrient enriched foods
A study by Oxfam, UNHCR and Micronutrient Initiative. Emergency general rations supplied by the international aid community have frequently failed to supply adequate amounts...
FEX: Appropriate Vitamin C Fortification Levels for CSB?
Report summary : The Institute of Medicine In 1995 the Senate Appropriations Committee Report directed USAID to initiate a pilot programme to increase the vitamin C content of...
FEX: Production of Pre-cooked Fortified Blended Foods in Kenya: A Success Story
Author: Goete Hertz, Supply Officer, UNICEF Emergency Programme in Kenya 1992-1995. Now head of Product Development in House of Menji, Nairobi The use of supplementary...
en-net: Upto what extend iron flour fortification can increase the Hb level of anemic adolescent women if iron fortified wheat flour is feed to these anemic adolescent women for 3 months?
i am doing my Mphil research on iron wheat flour fortification for anemic adolescent women. can any one have any information or relevant site or paper that how much it will...
FEX: In-country Capacity for Food Fortification
Report summary The Micronutrient Initiative of Canada commissioned a study which employed a team from the Refugee Policy Group. The study involved, a mission to East Africa to...
FEX: Acceptability and use of cereal-based foods in refugee camps: case studies from Nepal, Ethiopoa and Tanzania
By Catherine Mears with Helen Young Outbreaks of scurvy, pellagra and beri beri among refugees in the 1980s caused a public outcry, as many of these more unusual deficiency...
FEX: WHO/UNICEF/WFP/UNHCR informal consultation on moderate malnutrition management in U5’s
Summary of meetinga The World Health Organisation (WHO) convened a meeting in Geneva (September 30th - October 3rd, 2008) with the overall aim of answering the question, 'What...
FEX: Large-scale food fortification efforts in Haiti
View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Ruth Climat, Yves-Laurent Régis and Chrisla Joseph Ruth Climat is a medical doctor with a...
FEX: Persistent Micronutrient Problems among Refugees in Nepal
by Janack Upadhyay This article describes nutritional aspect of emergency food aid in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal; the author was regional Food & Nutrition...
FEX: Large-scale food fortification efforts in Haiti
This is a summary of a Field Exchange field article that was included in issue 65. The original article was authored by Ruth Climat, Yves-Laurent Régis and Chrisla...
en-net: Director, Nutrition in Emergencies
Responsibilities Driving Innovation • Identify solutions for improving product formulation and food supply chains for lower cost and increased nutrition impact. • Develop...
FEX: Assessing micronutrient deficiencies in emergencies
Summary of review1 Field haemoglobin testing using a hemacue machine Micronutrient deficiencies have been reported for years in emergency settings, especially in refugee...
FEX: Derivation of nutrient requirements for disaster-affected populations - Sphere Project 2011
Summary of research1 Location: Global What we know: The Sphere Handbook defines minimum standards and indicators for assessing humanitarian responses, including food and...
FEX: Review of the micronutrient impact of multi-sectoral programmes focusing on nutrition
Summary of research1 Location: Global What we know: Common strategies to combat micronutrient deficiencies involve supplementation and fortification, breastfeeding promotion,...
FEX: Scurvy outbreak and erosion of livelihoods masked by low wasting levels in drought affected Northern Afghanistan
By Fitsum Assefa Signs of scurvy: blackness of the legs indicative of haemorrhage Fitsum Assefa is a nutritionist who recently joined Save the Children, United States (SC/US)...
FEX: A Review of the advances and challenges in nutrition in conflicts and crises over the last 20 years
Abbreviated version of unpublished paper Food distribution at the ICRC kitchen in Tonj. By Frances Mason and Anna Taylor This paper is a shortened version of the complete...
FEX: Issue 10 Editorial
Dear Readers, Over the past ten years large-scale outbreaks of pellagra have only occurred amongst populations dependent on emergency food aid. The most recent outbreak in...
Reference this page
New Nutrition Policy Papers for WFP. Field Exchange 23, November 2004. p12. www.ennonline.net/fex/23/policypapers
(ENN_2453)