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The much-anticipated 2023 WHO guideline on the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema (acute malnutrition) in infants and children under 5 years has finally landed. Some of you have asked us, where’s MAMI? Rest assured it’s there!

In this episode of the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) Podcast, Eilise Brennan and Philip James of ENN talk with nutritionist Masud Rana of Save the Children about cost of the diet modelling and how it was used in Nigeria to develop culturally acceptable recipes from local food items that met the nutritional needs of children aged 6 to 23 months at the lowest possible cost. You can read more about this work in the article “Affordable and nutritious child feeding in Nigeria: Applying Cost of the Diet modelling”.

Calling all prospective Field Exchange authors!

 Now that the dust has settled after the launch of issue 69 of FEX, we are welcoming new authors to send us submissions for issues 70 and 71 – both due later in 2023.

This year we are working on general issues, so we are welcoming article ideas from around the world on a variety of topics. Although we have a particular focus on fragile contexts and countries with high burdens of undernutrition, the editorial team are keen to leave things open for these issues and we are excited to see what you put forward. If you have a story to tell, research to flag, or programmatic experience to share with your peers then we would love to hear from you. It does not need to be a brand new idea - just aim to bring readers a fresh perspective on a topic that you've been thinking about for some time.

The recently launched Lancet Small Vulnerable Newborns (SVN) Series comprised three hearty papers of evidence and analyses and a call for action to prevent babies being born dead, too early and too small.

In our latest blog, we ask if the nutrition community are shifting their approach towards targeting wasting treatment to children under 2 years old only ?

In 2020 it was estimated that 45 million children around the world were wasted¹. Only 11 million were reportedly reached with treatment in 2019 (UN 2023).  Increased international attention to the issue of wasting, recognises the need to accelerate progress on treatment (UN 2023, USAID 2022). However, given competing needs in the world of malnutrition, optimising efforts, focussing treatment on the most at risk children, and answering questions of what effective prevention looks like are all increasingly essential.

Présentation par Gwénola Desplats (Nutritionniste principale de ENN)

L’approche MAMI (d’après l’acronyme anglais) désigne la prise en charge des nourrissons de moins de six mois, petits et à risque nutritionnel, et de leurs mères.

Le Réseau mondial MAMI est un groupe de responsables de programme, de chercheurs et de décideurs politiques qui œuvrent à développer un réseau efficace et dynamique afin de renforcer leurs capacités mutuelles, de créer des passerelles entre les disciplines, de combler les lacunes en matière de données probantes et de faire le plaidoyer pour l’approche MAMI. Regardez et partagez notre nouvelle vidéo qui explique le travail du réseau et venez rejoindre un groupe de collaborateurs internationaux spécialisés qui œuvrent ensemble pour les nourrissons de moins de six mois, petits et à risque nutritionnel, ainsi que leurs mères.

Given it has been six months since I joined Emergency Nutrition Network, now seemed a good time to pen my reflections - not so much as a story of my first 200 days as the new and first ENN CEO, but more as a little insight into the impact the organisation has had on me.

CBRN emergencies are among the most alarming threats facing the world today. In modern warfare, there is increased risk of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons exposure and of nuclear emergencies due to damage to nuclear power plants. Most international agencies have action guidelines for the general population, but an urgent gap exists in guidance specifically for the breastfeeding population.  Before now, there was no centralised place for agencies or individuals to go to access vital information about the treatment of breastfeeding women, infants and young children and the safety of breastfeeding in CBRN crises.

Young Lives longitudinal data has allowed researchers around the world to examine how exposure to poor health and nutrition in early childhood impacts outcomes in later life. Getting the right start in life is critical as communities increasingly grapple with global crises; for example, childhood exposure to climate shocks has an unequal impact on children’s nutrition, with those from the poorest backgrounds hit hardest.  Yet, in 2023, the lack of standardised nutrition surveillance systems for children over five and adolescents continue to limit our understanding of their nutrition challenges and how to address them. It also explains why very few nutrition targets exist and perpetuates the deprioritisation of routine data collection for these age groups.

Welcome to ENN’s Field Exchange podcast. This is the second episode in our two part-er on Complementary Feeding in Emergencies which accompanied the Special Section in FEX edition 68.

In this episode, ENN’s Eilise Brennan speaks to two members of UNICEF Bangladesh’s Nutrition team: Karanveer Singh, Nutrition Manager at UNICEF Cox’s Bazar office, (who has recently moved to UNICEF Nigeria) and Mohammad Zahidul Manir, a Nutrition Officer  also at UNICEF Cox’s Bazar office. They discuss improving the quality of complementary feeding both in Rohingya refugee camps and in host communities and how traditional ceremonies can support these initiatives. You can read more about the work here  - Improving the quality of complementary feeding in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

In January 2023, we held a webinar on ‘Research Priorities for Nutrition in Adolescence and Middle Childhood’. We presented the findings from a recent research prioritisation survey (using the ‘CHNRI’ method) and discussed a Research Roadmap on how to tackle the most pressing evidence gaps for this vulnerable age group (5-19 years). ENN's Natasha Lelijveld and Stephanie Wrottesley were joined by experts in this field including David Ross (Stellenbosch University, ex-WHO), Deepika Sharma (UNICEF) and Caroline Kabiru (APHRC).

A critical year – Nigel Tricks  

"It’s 2023, and we have 7 years left to end all forms of malnutrition, 'including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons'. However, these targets are not being met and instead of reaching zero hunger, if current trends continue, the number of hungry people will reach 840 million by 2030.  The need for collective action has never been more critical and the expertise and solutions are out there. ENN is committed to making 2023 its most productive yet in fulfilling our aim that 'every individual caught up in a nutritional emergency, or suffering from malnutrition anywhere in the world, gets the most effective help possible'." 

Myself and colleagues at ENN are deeply saddened at the passing of Professor George Patton.

George really had a very special mind and a generous nature which combined to make him a fireball in the field of adolescent nutrition. I recently worked very closely with him on an opinion piece about measuring nutritional status in adolescents and colleagues at ENN worked with him on the recent Lancet Adolescent Nutrition Series. 

In this episode of the Emergency Nutrition Network Podcast, Eilise Brennan of ENN talks with nutritionist Aashima Garg of UNICEF MENA (Middle East and North Africa) about the latest edition of Field Exchange and its special series on complementary feeding in emergencies. They look at the global context and the challenges facing families across the world and why complementary feeding is such an essential part of a child's development. They also discuss UNICEF's action framework and several innovative approaches taking place right now in a variety of challenging humanitarian settings. You can find the articles themselves here

MAMI is the management of small & nutritionally at-risk Infants under six months & their mothers.

The MAMI Global Network is a group of programmers, researchers and policymakers working to build an effective and energetic network to enhance mutual capacity, bridge disciplines, address evidence gaps and champion MAMI care. Do watch and share our new video explaining the work of the network and come join a dedicated group of international collaborators working together for small and nutritionally at-risk infants under six months and their mothers. We have three different voiceovers below for you to choose from.

The nuclear emergency guidance note mentioned in this blog aims to help healthcare workers and emergency planners on the ground in their responses to infant and young child feeding in emergencies (IYCF-E) immediately after a nuclear power plant accident. The note does not cover IYCF in the context of nuclear warfare and should be used in conjunction with existing guidance for the general public, healthcare workers and policy makers.

At the beginning of August, ENN participated in a global webinar to mark World Breastfeeding Week organised by the Global Breastfeeding Collective (GBC), supported by UNICEF. During the webinar, we heard from experts on resources available to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, learned from donors about why we need to invest in the Ten Steps, and were inspired by national and regional leaders’ experiences of applying the Ten Steps in their contexts. The ENN team then introduced the MAMI Care Pathway Package, as a useful resource to support implementation of Step 10 - Coordinate discharge so that parents and their infants have timely access to ongoing support and care – for small and nutritionally at-risk infants under 6 months and their mothers. We also had the pleasure of launching the Operational Guidance on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies 10-year Progress Report, produced by the IFE Core Group. To learn more about these initiatives, check out our recent blog where you can also watch the WBW webinar recordings, read a brief on breastfeeding as a safe, sustainable, climate-friendly resource on RTE Brainstorm and join the MAMI Global Network.

In this podcast, Eilise Brennan (ENN Nutritionist) speaks to Jee Hyun Rah (Chief of Nutrition, UNICEF, Indonesia) to discuss how the government of Indonesia integrated and scaled up wasting prevention and treatment as part of their national stunting prevention programme. This podcast accompanies the article Scaling up child wasting prevention and treatment in the context of stunting prevention in Indonesia featured in the special section on Wasting and Stunting (WaST) in Field Exchange issue 67.

World Breastfeeding Week webinar and Q&A

The above video is the Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific recording, with a case study on Rwanda. 

In June 2022 at the MAMI Implementers Group meeting, Elise Vanlerberghe presented some thoughts on the maternal mental health component of the MAMI approach which will be implemented by MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience (MIHR) project and partners in South Sudan. Elisa looks at the tools for screening and assessment, considering their appropriateness for the context in South Sudan and suggested some possible alternatives.

After the publication of ENN's technical briefing paper in January 2022 titled: 'Women's nutrition: a summary of evidence, policy and practise including adolescents and maternal life stages', Natasha Lelijveld (one of the authors) gives a quick overview of the content of the document, and hopefully persuades you to go take a closer look yourself.

The GNC technical Alliance and ADRA Yemen presented their MAMI pilot implementation experience. Watch this webinar to find out how they delivered services, what their challenges were and how they overcame them. Services were planned with the support of the GNC TA MAMI expert, whose support can be requested here

The slides for the presentation are available here and the Q&A answers here. 

This podcast records a conversation between Tanya Khara (ENN Technical Director and Coordinator of the WaSt TIG) and Susan Thurstans (member of the WaSt TIG and lead author of the systematic review) who discuss some of the key findings of the systematic review which looks at the relationship between wasting and stunting and some of the outstanding questions that remain. Carmel Dolan (member of the WaSt TIG) and Gloria Odei (a researcher who has been influenced by the groups work) also give us their main takeaways from the review and thoughts on what comes next.

In this short presentation Eilise Brennan, nutritionist at ENN, takes us through the basics of nutrition survey interpretation, covering concepts such as prevalence, incidence and confidence intervals.

To read a transcript of the presentation, please click here for English and here for French. 

In this short presentation Stephanie Wrottesley, Nutritionist at ENN, takes us through where the data for estimating severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treatment coverage comes from, and what we should keep in mind when using and interpreting these estimates.

To read a transcript of the presentation, please click here for English and here for French. 

In this podcast, Amanda Murungi shares some of her insights into adolescent nutrition programming given her wealth of knowledge on this topic. Amanda also reflects on the article published in FEX 66 on experiences from the implementation of a school-based nutrition programme in Uganda. 

Amanda Murungi is a member of our FEX 66 Special Advisory Group.

In this podcast, accompanying Field Exchange issue 66, Natalie Sessions (ENN Senior Nutritionist) speaks to Progress Katete, a United Nations Volunteer Nutrition Specialist at UNICEF, and explores some of the broader elements of the work outlined in an accompanying article in FEX 66: Promoting youth leadership on nutrition through junior parliamentarians and junior council engagement in Zimbabwe

In this short presentation Philip James, Senior Technical Associate at ENN, takes us through the how seasonality can affect nutrition data and why it is critical to take this into account when interpreting survey data and trends in nutrition outcomes over time. 

To read a transcript of the presentation, please click here for English and here for French. 

In this podcast, ENN’s Tanya Khara discusses with WaSt TIG members Susan Thurstans and Michel Garenne, collaborative work that they have led exploring patterns of sex differences in undernutrition and the early life mechanisms that may underlie them.

In this video Dr Indi Trehan (Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Emergency Medicine, University of Washington) presented to the MAMI Global Network’s Implementers’ group the results of the study: ‘Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition for Infants Under 6 Months of Age is Safe and Effective: Analysis of Operational Data.’ 

In this podcast, accompanying Field Exchange issue 66, Natalie Sessions (ENN Senior Nutritionist) speaks to two members of the Field Exchange 66 advisory group, Webster Makombe and Tasha Mhakayakora on their thoughts on the current state of nutrition interventions for school-aged children and adolescents and what they think should be priorities for future packages of support. They share some of their main take-aways and key reflections from this edition of Field Exchange.

In this podcast, we have a conversation with members of the GNC Technical Alliance Technical Support Team, Ben Allen and Martha Nakakande and Abdi Moge Mohamed, CEO of ARDI on how the Alliance supported ARDI in its technical needs. We also discuss future plans for the Alliance in order to best support local NGO’s.

This podcast accompanies a brief on ‘How can local NGOs receive technical support?’ which is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Somali.   

Held on: 27th January 2022

Malnutrition, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies, disproportionately affects women and girls, with more than one billion women experiencing at least one form of malnutrition globally. In 2013, ENN published a technical background paper summarising evidence on maternal nutrition and identifying knowledge gaps in addressing maternal undernutrition in emergencies.

The CMAM Conference - Scaling up Community Management of Acute Malnutrition and Scaling up Nutrition (SUN), 2011. 

This is a short video from the conference which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 14th - 17th November 2011, which includes an opening address from the late Dr Ferew Lemma. 

On 19 November 2021, the MAMI Global Network hosted an official N4G side-event focused on partnerships and collective action to co-create evidence to transform care of small and nutritionally at-risk infants under six months and their mothers (MAMI). The event showcased country experiences from Ethiopia and India and featured reflections from the WHO and UNICEF on strategic approaches to transform MAMI care.  

The process for developing the WHO guidelines for the prevention and treatment of wasting is well underway. Since the last webinar on the process in September 2020 much has happened. In this webinar we provide an update on what stage has been reached, what is still to come, and what the revised timeframe is.

ENN and UNICEF are very excited to share ENN’s 66th edition of Field Exchange, a special issue on the nutrition of adolescents and school-aged children has launched. This edition features a range of articles that describe programming experiences for these vulnerable groups, research articles and much more.

Ce podcast, en français, s’intéresse à l’approche CMAM Surge. Il accompagne la section spéciale de Field Exchange Numéro 64 qui explore l'approche CMAM de Concern Worldwide dans un certain nombre de contextes nationaux. Dans cet épisode, nous discutons avec M. Roufai Mohamed (Technicien Spécialise CMAM Surge pour Concern Worldwide à Tahoua), Dr Sabo Sahabi (Pédiatre, Centre Hospitalier Régional de Tahoua) et M. Ado Moustapha (Point Focal Nutrition, DRSP Tahoua) au sujet de l’approche CMAM surge qui est mise en œuvre au Niger depuis 2014.

Part 1: MAMI Care Pathway Package Overview

This video gives an overview of the MAMI Care Pathway Package - a set of resources and materials to help practitioners identify, assess, and manage small and nutritionally at-risk infants u6m and their mothers. The MAMI Care Pathway Package is a package of resources that was co-created by members of the MAMI Global Network, co-led by the Emergency Nutrition Network and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The MAMI Care Pathway was released in May 2021; previously known as the C-MAMI Tool, the update was informed by the latest evidence and experiences of putting previous versions into practice. Learn more about the contents of the MAMI Care Pathway Package in Part 2 of this video here.

Part 2: Contents of the MAMI Care Pathway Package.

This video looks in detail at the contents of the MAMI Care Pathway Package - a set of resources and materials to help practitioners identify, assess, and manage small and nutritionally at-risk infants u6m and their mothers. The MAMI Care Pathway Package is a package of resources that was co-created by members of the MAMI Global Network, co-led by the Emergency Nutrition Network and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The MAMI Care Pathway was released in May 2021; previously known as the C-MAMI Tool, the update was informed by the latest evidence and experiences of putting previous versions into practice. For an overview of the MAMI Care Pathway Package, see Part 1 of this video here. 

In this podcast, accompanying Field Exchange issue 65, Natalie Sessions (ENN Senior Nutritionist) talks to Sweta Banerjee, Nutrition Specialist for Welthungerhilfe’s India country programme.

They discuss the article Multi-sector nutrition programming: ‘Nutrition Smart Villages’ in Bangladesh and India. 

ENN recently published a brief entitled: Best Practice and Prevention of Child Wasting Within the Wider Context of Undernutrition (read here). The brief is based on work since 2014 by the Wasting Stunting Technical Interest Group (WaSt TIG)3 and the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN). It updates previous reports on wasting prevention by ENN and builds on ENN’s recent position paper on wasting.

In this podcast, we interview Sylvester Kathumba, Nutrition Focal Point in the Ministry of Health, Malawi. The prevalence of wasted children in Malawi has reduced from 4% in 2010 to 1.8% in 2018 and this podcast aims to explore how this encouraging reduction in the prevalence and burden of wasting was achieved.

This podcast aims to be  a resource, for programmers, practitioners and policy makers involved in nutrition, and  will support improved understanding of current thinking on wasting prevention. This podcast accompanies a recently published brief entitled: Best Practice in Preventing Child Wasting Within the Wider Context of Undernutrition read here.

In this podcast, we interview Khawaja Masuood Ahmed, National Coordinator Nutrition & NFA in the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination in the Government of Pakistan. We explore some of the challenges, successes and future plans to prevent wasting in Pakistan, in the context of broader stunting reduction efforts.  

This podcast aims to be  a resource, for programmers, practitioners and policy makers involved in nutrition, and will support improved understanding of current thinking on wasting prevention. This podcast accompanies a recently published brief entitled: Best Practice in Preventing Child Wasting Within the Wider Context of Undernutrition read here. 

In this podcast, we chat to Grainne Moloney, Senior Advisor for Early Childhood Nutrition at UNICEF. We discuss UNICEF’s perspective on the prevention of wasting in the context of global action, challenges and knowledge gaps.

This podcast accompanies a recently published brief entitled: Best Practice in Preventing Child Wasting Within the Wider Context of Undernutrition (read here) and two podcasts where we explore Malawi and Pakistan Ministry of Health’s approach to preventing wasting (Malawi podcast and Pakistan podcast).

"Tackling undernutrition through action and accountability: A ‘reset’ for the prevention, early detection and treatment of wasting and costing information on the consequences of stunting.”

Emergency Nutrition Network, the Power of Nutrition (PoN), Standing Together for Nutrition (ST4N) and the Micronutrient Forum (MNF) held a parallel session at the Pre Summit of the United Nations Food Systems Summit on Monday 26th July. The webinar included a brief overview of the wasting reset, followed by a panel discussion.

Tackling malnutrition is a global health priority, helping children both survive and thrive. A large proportion of infants under six months of age in the world are identified as malnourished (wasted, stunted and/or underweight) and are at increased risk of death, disease, and poor development. Challenges faced by frontline practitioners in supporting small and nutritionally at risk infants under six months and their mothers prompted the MAMI Global Network to develop the MAMI Care Pathway Package (formerly the C-MAMI Tool) to fill this urgent gap. 

Community health programmes are neither cheap nor easy to implement well, but they remain a good and wise investment that can yield important dividends. The latest evidence shows that for every dollar invested in community health there is a 10 dollar return of good health and productivity (Dahn B 2015). Current pressures on health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the difficulties in responding adequately, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, have overwhelmingly shown the critical importance of the community health system. The second Institutionalizing Community Health Conference (ICHC) that took place between 19-22 April 2021, brought us up-to-date with the gains that have been made in community health systems, the investments currently in place, the gaps that still exist and the investment priorities for low resource and hard-to-reach settings.

As you may have seen, ENN recently launched its latest issue of Field Exchange Issue 65. As one of the sub-editors, I have enjoyed the privilege of editing some of the articles, a number of which have explored the topic of multi-sector nutrition programming. These articles have provided a lot of ‘food for thought’, particularly in relation to how these projects take time and that change often occurs in a broader and often more complex environment which makes programming for nutrition improvement more challenging.

Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) has submitted a game-changer on a ‘wasting reset’ that has been included as part of the game-changers of Action Track 1 for the UN Food Systems Summit.

The objective of this wasting reset is “To coalesce and clearly communicate the dialogue around what is required to reduce global wasting incidence and prevalence.” To achieve this, we must join forces to speak with one collective voice; we must embrace our diversity and downplay our differences.

In this podcast, Saul Guerrero shares updates on the UNICEF Global Action Plan on Child Wasting process, the partnership between WFP and UNICEF as well as some of his reflections on the recently published UNICEF Nutrition Strategy.

ENN’s 65^th issue of Field Exchange was published in May 2021. This is a general issue of around 100 pages with a wide range of content drawn from multiple organisations and countries and features a special section on nutrition programme adaptations in light of COVID-19. This 5 minute video aims to provide an overview of this content.

Download a printable pdf version or see the list of individual articles of the edition.

ENN’s 64^th issue of Field Exchange was published in January 2021. This is a general issue of around 100 pages with a wide range of content drawn from multiple organisations and countries with two themed sections. This presentation aims to provide an overview of this content. 

Download a printable pdf version or see the list of individual articles.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to global food and agriculture sectors. Many governments have closed formal and informal retail outlets for food, and severely restricted the movement of citizens, with the production, processing, transportation, trade, and retail of food being profoundly affected. This has led to multiple shocks throughout the food system.

In the Philippines, AGREA, a group that aims to support the empowerment of local farmers by implementing sustainable agricultural practices and creating inclusive agribusiness livelihood programmes, began getting calls from farmers unable to move their produce. The group quickly set up the Move Food Initiative, an online, Google Form-based, fresh produce ordering platform, which facilitated food to move, at both producers’ and consumers’ end. The initiative has helped reduce food waste and post-harvest loss on the side of the farmers and on the consumers end, provided people who needed food but were not able to leave their homes because of the quarantine, access to fresh produce. By the end of November 2020, 191,447 kg of fruits and vegetables had been delivered, 28,122 farmers had been partnered with, and fruits and vegetables had been served to 78,177 families and 4,690 frontline workers.

Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN), UNICEF and Save the Children hosted a two-days virtual meeting on 9^th and 10^th February 2021 on 'Adolescent Nutrition: Current Progress and Looking Ahead'. Supported by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs.

Listen to presenters and panellists discuss and answer questions on adolescent nutrition.

Day 1 - Agenda

Happy 2021 to all! With any new year comes new opportunities and for me this means taking up the reins as the Co-Editor of Field Exchange (FEX) at ENN. What a privilege to have the chance to support the strategic direction of this critical publication in the nutrition sector, which has been an essential read for me over my career working with NGOs and as a donor. I am looking forward to working with many of you and learning about your latest programming experiences, innovations and research, and supporting you with the development of Field Exchange content in my editorial role with the FEX team.

It was indeed CONNECTED, the Micronutrient Forum 5^th Global Conference that took place virtually from the 2^nd to the 20^th of November 2020.  It lived up to its promise to be one of the best virtual events with similar, or perhaps even stronger programming interaction than a face-to-face conference could have offered. The technical team were very responsive in resolving the technical platform connection issues that I encountered, and hence ensured that as an attendee, I had the best platform experience to engage with the latest evidence and innovative technologies in micronutrient programming, emerging strategies, best practices and insights from successful implementation. This forum was a true reflection of the flexibility and innovation brought as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

As the COVID response shifts and people are wanting to understand more how programmes are being adapted, ENN, as part of its work within the GNC Technical Alliance mechanism, has been reflecting on how best to share such information and capture stories from country level responses. Reflecting on the fact that everyone’s time is stretched at the moment, we realise that opportunities to document such adaptations (and for targeted audience members to have time to read and reflect on such documentation) are very limited. As a result, we are putting together a series of ‘connecting conversations’ in which programmers can reflect broadly what approaches they are currently taking- what is working well and what have the challenges been along the way (very much taking into account that we are all taking a ‘learning by doing’ approach to current programme shifts) so that others can hear and learn from such experiences.

In this podcast Natalie Sessions (ENN Senior Nutritionist) and Emily Mates (ENN Technical Director) talk to Emmy Simmonds, a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition published its new Report, Food Systems: For people, our planet and prosperity on the 29th September 2020. The report brings together a substantial body of evidence to guide policymakers and others, particularly those in LMICs, in making the transition to food systems which provide sustainable, healthy diets for all. 

This week I have been delighted to finally see the publication of my paper reviewing sex differences in undernutrition which forms part of my PhD studies at LSHTM.  I was introduced to the interesting, yet emotive subject of sex differences by my primary PhD supervisor Marko Kerac and have since teamed up with an advisory group full of brilliant people from various disciplines and backgrounds, including a subgroup of ENN’s Wasting and Stunting (WaSt) Technical Interest Group (TIG). 

As part of the special edition of Field Exchange on Child Wasting in South Asia, we were delighted to speak to Britta Schumacher, senior regional nutrition advisor with WFP Regional Bureau for Asian Pacific. This regional office provides support to 14 countries in Asia, of which seven are in South Asia. In this podcast, Britta shares insights of WFP's role and regional approaches to wasting management as well as nutrition more broadly in the region.

This video is a presentation to the Ethiopian Nutrition Leaders Network Annual Meeting, 23rd November 2020 by Marie McGrath (ENN) and Carlos Grijalva Eternod (LSHTM).

MAMI RISE research in Ethiopia is a four year research programme (2019-2023) that will test the MAMI care pathway as a community based approach to care for nutritionally at risk infants under six months in a randomised control trial (RCT) within existing services in two sites in Ethiopia (Jimma Zone and Deder Woreda).

As part of the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia, we feature an article that examines how wasting prevention and treatment is central to stunting reduction in Pakistan. We're delighted to have had the opportunity to interview Dr. Baseer Khan Achakzai, Nutrition Director of the nutrition wing of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination for the Government of Pakistan to discuss the details of the article further.

In this podcast, Marie McGrath speaks to Dr. Andrew Mertens, a postdoctoral scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Targeted Learning and a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Andrew is the lead author of some fascinating research, examining patterns of growth failure that we have summarized in the Field Exchange edition, part of the knowledge integration initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which includes a database of millions of participants and studies in child birth growth and development. Summaries of the particular papers mentioned in this podcast can be found here and here.

This podcast reflects on an article within the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia that describes the challenges and developments around wasting management in Afghanistan. To delve into some of the details of integrated management of acute malnutrition or IMAM in Afghanistan, we were honoured to interview Dr. Jamil Bawary, the IMAM Officer for the Public Nutrition Department of the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan.

This podcast reflects on one of the articles published within the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia that describes Nepal's experiences in scaling of integrated management of acute malnutrition or IMAM programming. What began as pilot programs way back in 2008 is now implemented in over half the countries districts. We were delighted to have the opportunity to interview Mr. Kedar Raj Parajuli, chief of the Nutrition Section of the Ministry of Health and Population in Nepal, to share further insights into the experiences on their pathway to scale up.

In this podcast, Dr. Victor Aguayo, UNICEF’s Chief of Nutrition shares his reflections on the rich experiences gathered within Field Exchange 63 which has been a joint publication between ENN and UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia. Victor shares his insights into why wasting in South Asia has not received the attention it needs, what are the key opportunities, challenges and learning from the region and why other regions should be interested in what is happening in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Purnima Menon explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region. Purnima Menon is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, and is based in New Delhi, India.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health and Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, at the Aga Khan University, explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Professor Robert Black, Professor and Chairman, Department of International Health, John Hopkins University, explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.

As part of the GNC Technical Alliance's work in relation to COVID-19, the team has been receiving a number of programme questions from the field on how programmes should respond and adapt in light of the pandemic. A number of these questions have related to issues with supplies and supply chain planning. In this podcast we reflect on some of these key questions that programmers had with the supply chain division at UNICEF. We are honoured to have Alison Fleet, Technical Specialist for UNICEF Supply Division, Mamadou Diallou, Supply Chain Specialist for UNICEF Supply Division and Grainne Moloney, Nutrition Specialist for the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, UNICEF share some of their insights.

Reflections on the latest Nutrition Exchange South Asia edition on improving young children’s diets.

Recently I was asked to provide a summary of the two South East Asia Nutrition Exchange Special Editions for the upcoming Field Exchange, which also has a special focus on the region. It provided an opportunity for me to once again dive into the rich content of the editions, particularly the latest publication which focused on young children’s diets and the importance of complementary feeding.  

In this podcast, accompanying the second special issue of Nutrition Exchange South Asia, Dr Charulatha Banerjee talks to Dr Sahib Jan Badar, Programme Coordinator of the Accelerated Action Plan, Department of Health, Government of Sindh province, Pakistan.

They discuss the article Combining WASH and nutrition activities within a multisectoral package to improve young children’s diets and reduce child stunting in Sindh province, Pakistan.

In light of the upcoming update to the WHO guidelines for the management of wasting, this webinar was hosted to improve understanding of the WHO guideline development process in general, as well as lay out specific considerations and timelines for the new wasting guidelines.

Listen to panellists Pura Rayco-Solon (WHO, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing) and Zita Weise Prinzo (WHO, Nutrition in Emergencies and Undernutrition) discuss the specifics of the new wasting guidelines development and answer questions around the topic.

In this podcast, accompanying the second special issue of Nutrition Exchange South Asia, Dr Charulatha Banerjee talks to Dr Mohammadullah Noorzad, Senior Officer for the Community Based Nutrition Programme in the Public Nutrition Directorate, Ministry of Public Health, Afghanistan.

They discuss the article Scaling up a community-based nutrition package in Afghanistan to improve complementary feeding practices in children 6-23 months of age. 

As the COVID response shifts and people are wanting to understand more how programmes are being adapted, ENN, as part of its work within the GNC Technical Alliance mechanism, has been reflecting on how best to share such information and capture stories from country level responses. Reflecting on the fact that everyone’s time is stretched at the moment, we realise that opportunities to document such adaptations (and for targeted audience members to have time to read and reflect on such documentation) are very limited. As a result, we are putting together a series of ‘connecting conversations’ in which programmers can reflect broadly what approaches they are currently taking- what is working well and what have the challenges been along the way (very much taking into account that we are all taking a ‘learning by doing’ approach to current programme shifts) so that others can hear and learn from such experiences. 

As the COVID response shifts and people are wanting to understand more how programmes are being adapted, ENN, as part of its work within the GNC Technical Alliance mechanism, has been reflecting on how best to share such information and capture stories from country level responses. Reflecting on the fact that everyone’s time is stretched at the moment, we realise that opportunities to document such adaptations (and for targeted audience members to have time to read and reflect on such documentation) are very limited. As a result, we are putting together a series of ‘connecting conversations’ in which programmers can reflect broadly what approaches they are currently taking- what is working well and what have the challenges been along the way (very much taking into account that we are all taking a ‘learning by doing’ approach to current programme shifts) so that others can hear and learn from such experiences.

In this webinar, the Field Exchange Editors appraised the Global Action Plan (GAP) on Child Wasting: A framework for action to accelerate progress in preventing and managing child wasting and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals which was published in March 2020 by five UN agencies (UNICEF, WFP, WHO, UNHCR, FAO). The appraisal was based on reflections within the 60th edition of Field Exchange which focused on the continuity of care (CoC) for treatment of children with wasting and highlighted priority areas of action. The aim of this exercise was to invite constructive, collective and practical engagement to support the GAP development and roll out. The Field Exchange editors were honoured to be joined by key UN representatives in the webinar to contribute to the conversation and share their plans in the development and finalization of the GAP on Child Wasting.

As the COVID response shifts and people are wanting to understand more how programmes are being adapted, ENN, as part of its work within the GNC Technical Alliance mechanism, has been reflecting on how best to share such information and capture stories from country level responses. Reflecting on the fact that everyone’s time is stretched at the moment, we realise that opportunities to document such adaptations (and for targeted audience members to have time to read and reflect on such documentation) are very limited. As a result, we are putting together a series of ‘connecting conversations’ in which programmers can reflect broadly what approaches they are currently taking- what is working well and what have the challenges been along the way (very much taking into account that we are all taking a ‘learning by doing’ approach to current programme shifts) so that others can hear and learn from such experiences.  

This is a recording of a presentation by Marie McGrath, ENN Technical Director, on ENN's work on Management of At risk Mothers and Infants under six months (MAMI). It shares key principles of the MAMI approach, how this collective effort has evolved, resources available to support practitioners and exciting potential looking ahead.

MAMI Special Interest Group meeting, December 2019 Report.

This video examines the implementation of the The Philippine Plan of Action (PPAN) 2017- 2022 which is a blueprint for an integrated programme of nutrition interventions under the leadership of the National Nutrition Council (NNC). It consists of 12 programs and 46 projects serving as a framework for actions that could be undertaken by member agencies.

Download the full case study in PDF here.

This is a recording of a webinar ENN’s SUN KM Team hosted in March unpacking the key findings from the 8 country case studies examining multisectoral programming at the sub- national level.

To read the case studies, click here.

In this podcast, Steve Collins, who conceptualised and pioneered the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) model, talks about the current developments in wasting, in light of the United Nations draft Global Action Plan on wasting, including his views on the challenges of achieving treatment at scale, what needs to be done differently and how to engage new actors in these processes.

A full article on Steve’s reflections can be found here in Field Exchange 62, March 2020.

This is the recording of a webinar presentation conducted in March which reflected on 4 country case studies (Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen) exploring the humanitarian development nexus. The webinar explores critical aspects of nutrition security in the context of fragility including nutrition architecture, coordination and financing.

To find out more read the two published case studies from Somalia and Kenya. 

This video examines multisectoral nutrition efforts in Zimbabwe through an exploration of the Multi-Sectoral Community Based Model (MCBM) Programme, launched in 2015, which aims ‘to reduce food and nutrition security challenges in vulnerable districts of Zimbabwe through a multi-sectoral community based model approach and systems strengthening’. We explored work happening in the Chipinge and Chiredzi districts to advance their nutrition agenda.

Since 2017, ENN has undertaken 8 country case studies to explore what multi-sector nutrition programming looks like at a local level. We developed rich case studies which can be read here. We noted a number of similarities and key common findings which are explored in this animated video.

ENN’s Charulatha Banerjee talks to Mr Aslam Shaheen SUN Focal Point Pakistan and Dr Shabina Raza Country Director Nutrition International Pakistan to capture the impact of devolution on nutrition programming in the country. Participants talk of the processes that were adopted to set up mechanisms at the subnational level to monitor and implement nutrition programmes, the barriers and the enablers for multi sectoral programmes for nutrition. They speak of how nutrition has become a priority for local leaders and how in recent elections nutrition was an electoral issue. This podcast adds to ENN’s initiative in the SUN KM project to understand and document sub national implementation of Multisectoral programmes.

Global coordinator for ENN’s SUN KM project, Natalie Sessions, and Nutrition Exchange (NEX) co-editor, Judith Hodge, discuss key findings from their review of articles from NEX and FEX (Field Exchange) publications from the last five years. This work is brought together in five briefs, including: Building an enabling environment for scale-up; Using SUN mechanisms to catalyse scale-up; Scaling up nutrition-specific activities; Scaling up nutrition-sensitive activities; and Nutrition programming in fragile and conflict affected states.

Nutrition is increasingly a top priority issue for developing countries around the globe, with many countries working hard to reduce high rates of undernutrition, including child stunting and wasting.

Nutrition is however a complex, multifaceted issue, that interacts with many sectors.

In order to understand more about how multisectoral programming works at the sub-national level, ENN has developed 8 country case studies from Senegal, Kenya, Nepal, Ethiopia, Niger, Bangladesh. Zimbabwe and the Philippines.

Philippines is a middle income country with a per capita income of 2970 USD. Undernutrition is a serious problem with 30.3 % of children U5 being stunted with very slow progress being made within the last 15 years. Wasting has stagnated with a wasting prevalence in children U5 hovering between 6 and 8% in the past 15 years. The country which is rapidly urbanising like the rest of South and South East Asia is also facing rising rates of overweight and obesity in school children and adults. This less than encouraging situation is despite a long history of Nutrition Plans and Policies by successive governments in the country from as early as the 1970s.

The first week of November saw the coming together of key members of the ENN SUN KM team in Kathmandu for the SUN Global Gathering (GG) 2019. The ENN  team comprised of the directors Jeremy Shoham, Carmel Dolan and Emily Mates, the SUN KM project Global Coordinator Natalie Sessions and myself as the Asia Regional KM Specialist. Judith Hodge in her role as the Co Editor of Nutrition Exchange was also part of the team. It was 4 days of putting faces to names for all of us and for me in particular to understand the scope and breadth of the SUN Movement’s impact on the countries across the world who have signed up.

We've been on a high this week with the publication of the Viewpoint from the ENN coordinated Wasting-Stunting Technical Interest Group (WaSt TIG). 'Beyond wasted and stunted - a paradigm shift is needed to fight child undernutrition' in the Lancet journal of Child and Adolescent Health. The Viewpoint reflects the combination of work we have been coordinating over the last 5 years with a dedicated and inspiring group of experts. For further information about this work, see the WaSt TIG project page

We have just visited Ethiopia to understand how the country is succeeding in strengthening the ‘nexus’ between humanitarian and development actions. Both of us have a long history with Ethiopia, starting our careers working at the time of the 1984 famine in Ethiopia and with refugees in Sudan. Since then, we have been privileged to have worked in Ethiopia on numerous occasions, witnessing substantial change and progress. A memorable event was when we co-hosted a 3-day conference in 2011 with the Government of Ethiopia to share learning across many countries on how to scale up CMAM.

Malnutrition is recognised the world over as a problem requiring multisectoral intervention and to this end many countries have developed Multisectoral Policies and Plans to combat both malnutrition and stunting in particular. Many of these countries are part of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. However, evidence of implementation of Multisectoral programmes sub-nationally is limited.

ENN, as the Knowledge Management Partner in the Technical Assistance to Nutrition (TAN) project - which is funded by DfID - conducted a series of case studies examining Multisectoral programme implementation at the Sub National level in 6 countries; Nepal, Kenya, Senegal, Bangladesh, Niger and Ethiopia between 2016 and 2018.

MSP Webinar

This is a recording of a webinar ENN’s SUN KM Team hosted in June unpacking the key findings from the case studies conducted in Ethiopia, Niger and Bangladesh examining multisectoral programming at the sub- national level.

In 2019 ENN, continuing its case studies series on Multisectoral programming at the Subnational level, plans to study two more countries -Philippines and Zimbabwe, within the final year of the TAN project. With this in mind, in July, accompanied by the Global Knowledge Management Coordinator, Natalie Sessions, I visited the Philippines’ capital Manila for a scoping visit. In this week we intended to understand the history of nutrition plans and programmes in the country, the burden of malnutrition and district level variance, the structure of implementation hierarchy for nutrition programming and how this fits in with the existing governance structure in the country, the different multisectoral nutrition programmes in place and the factors that have supported nutrition improvement in the country.

ENN attended the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) annual gathering in Brussels in early July (Tanya Khara as Technical Director, Isabelle Modigell and Linda Shaker-Berberias as ENN consultants and myself as staff nutritionist). This is a key event in the calendar for nutrition actors in the humanitarian sector – a chance to take stock of progress in countries of operation and steer the course of future action at country, regional and global levels.

Silvia Kaufmann (Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition Plus - MQSUN+ - Technical Assistance Team Lead for Yemen) talks with Abdul Karim Nasser (the Health of the SUN-Yemen Secretariat) and Karima Ahmed Al-Hada’a (the Planning and Liaison Specialist for SUN-Yemen) about their experience in assessing the readiness for costing of their Common Results Framework (CRF) in 2018, as part of wider technical assistance from the DFID-funded MQSUN+ project.

Nutrition is increasingly a top priority issue for developing countries around the globe, with many countries working hard to reduce high rates of undernutrition, child stunting and wasting.

Nutrition is however a complex, multifaceted issue, that interacts with many sectors.

In order to understand more about how multisectoral programming works on the ground we carried out a research project focussing on 3 regional case studies in Matam, Senegal, Homa Bay, Kenya and Kapilvastu, Nepal. 

ENN’s Charulatha Banerjee talks to Uma Mahadevan, the previous Principal Secretary, Women & Child Development in the Government of Karnataka, about the Mathrupoorna programme. The intervention combines a mid-day meal, health services and peer support to strengthen maternal nutrition.

In this episode Natalie Sessions, Global Knowledge Coordinator is joined by Nazneen Rahman, who currently serves as a Team Leader for the Health unit of CARE Bangladesh and is overseeing the Collective Impact for Nutrition initiative.
 

They discuss the FEX article A multi-sector approach to improve nutrition: Experiences of the Nutrition at the Center project, Bangladesh and expand on what works and what doesn't work with multisectoral programming. 

In this episode ENN Technical Directors Tanya Khara and Carmel Dolan are joined by Martha Mwangome from the Kemri / Wellcome Trust research programme in Kenya and Dr Sophie Moore from King's College London to talk about the Wasting and Stunting Technical Interest Group (WaSt TIG). 

The key question they interrogate is whether the distinction between wasting and stunting is justified or helpful. They use several analyses conducted by the WaSt TIG as a basis for answering this question. 

ENN’s Technical Directors, Tanya Khara conducted a lecture at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she explained the linkages between wasting and stunting, outlining the latest evidence of the overlap between the two types of malnutrition and how children may progress from one manifestation of undernutrition to the other. This video captures the lecture with relevant slides.

In this podcast ENN’s Technical Director Jeremy Shoham talks to Natalie Sessions, the Global KM coordinator for the SUN KM Project within ENN, about the SUN Movement Networks in Africa and Asia. They explain why they chose to focus on networks in fragile and conflict-affected states, and unpack the methodology used to gather the information, as well as sharing some of the key findings. 

In this podcast, Holly Sedutto from the UN Network Secretariat, unpacks what it takes to be a nutrition champion in Sierra Leone. Holly speaks with Philip Kanu about his experiences as a UNN-REACH facilitator, the process of raising awareness around nutrition and engaging parliamentarians to make a change. His interview is accompanied by an interview with Dr. El-Bashir from UNICEF and Laureant from Irish Aid who speak of some of Philips successes.

Every year SUN Movement member countries are encouraged to engage in a Joint Assessment (JA) exercise to assess their country’s progress against four processes in pursuit of the strategic objectives specified in the SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016-2020).

Having joined the SUN Movement in 2011, Burkina Faso was one of the early risers of the movement and held it's first Joint Assessment in 2015. Our Regional Knowledge Manager for the West Africa region, Ambarka Youssoufane, joined Burkina Faso in June 2017 for their 3rd joint assessment to speak with some of the participants. This three part video includes some of the highlights from those conversations. 

Today, over 50 million children are wasted, which comes with an elevated risk of death. Even more, wasting prevalence hasn’t declined in recent years. The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) are calling for a focus on how to prevent wasting to complement existing evidence-based treatment of children who are already affected.

Since early 2018, the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) has been working—through the MQSUN⁺ project—to improve the understanding of what is needed to prevent children from becoming wasted. ENN carried out two reviews as part of this project. We started with a rapid review of the state of knowledge about ‘The Aetiology of Wasting’ and then moved into a more detailed review of what the literature tells us about the ‘Current State of Evidence and Thinking on Wasting Prevention.’

ENN’s Technical Directors Carmel Dolan and Jeremy Shoham, speak with Dr Farah, Special Adviser on Health and Nutrition to the national Government of Somalia and Focal Point for the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement in Somalia. They discuss the Common Results Framework in Somalia - the process of setting it up, costing and prioritisation, as well as where the country is in terms of its SUN membership. 

My winter began in Kathmandu last week where I attended the 6^th Annual Scientific Symposium on Agriculture- Nutrition Pathways organised by Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition. I have attended the Annual event 3 years in a row and this year was extra special as the event also was celebrating 25 years of Nepal’s Progress in Nutrition. What makes this event unique is that it attracts students and young researchers in equal numbers as persons from academia, policy makers and programme implementors in the field of agriculture- nutrition research relevant to Nepal.

Le 15 novembre dernier, le gouvernement nigérien a fait un grand pas en avant dans la lutte contre la malnutrition en adoptant sa toute première politique nationale de nutrition dite « politique nationale multisectorielle de sécurité nutritionnelle ». Cette politique a pour objectif d’éliminer toutes les formes de malnutrition pour atteindre la vision où chaque nigérien jouit d’un statut nutritionnel adéquat pour assurer le développement, la résilience et la prospérité du Niger. Cette vision pose la nutrition comme un outil de développement et de résilience et pas seulement comme une stratégie d’urgence. Elle définit les rôles et les responsabilités de toutes les parties prenantes (tels que les donateurs, les partenaires techniques, les organisations non gouvernementales, la société civile et le secteur privé, etc.) dans l'amélioration de la sécurité nutritionnelle du pays, soulignant ainsi l'importance de la participation de tous les acteurs dans la réduction de la malnutrition.

On the 15 November this year, the Niger government took a big step forward in tackling malnutrition by adopting its first ever nutrition policy known as the “national multisectoral nutrition security policy”. The policy aims to achieve the vision of the citizens having adequate nutritional security, in order to ensure the development, resilience and prosperity of the country as a whole. Notably, the policy aims to make nutrition programmes part of development and resilience work in the country, rather than simply being seen as emergency focused interventions. Furthermore, the policy sets out roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders (such as donors, technical assistance providers, non- governmental institutions, civil society and the private sector) in relation to improving nutrition security in the country, thus emphasizing the importance of everyone playing a role in reducing malnutrition.  

ENN has returned from the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) annual meeting in Amman, Jordan, where it seemed that everyone was talking about the humanitarian development nexus as a means to ensure a continuum of care. 

ENN provided its usual brand of knowledge management (KM) support to Nutrition Cluster Coordinator (NCC) presenters and, for the first time, the GNC, with ENN support started the annual event with a one-day meeting devoted to Yemen and Sudan. UNICEF had requested this smaller side-meeting to shine a light on the particular challenges faced and to move forward on a call to action to end malnutrition in Yemen and a nutrition investment case for Sudan. Both countries have been in protracted crises for several years, have very high rates of wasting, stunting, micronutrient deficiency, low birth weight and maternal malnutrition, and rely on annual humanitarian response plans (HRPs) to implement nutrition activities.

Background:

I attended Kenya’s 2nd Agri-nutrition conference held in Nairobi from 11th – 13th of September 2018. The 3-day forum was co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation and the Ministry of Health, with support from USAID-Accelerated Value Chain Development Program and partners.¹

The Conference’s objective was to provide a learning platform on the role of agriculture in improving nutritional outcomes, summarised in the conference theme: “Accelerating Nutritional Gains Through Agriculture”. ENN attended the conference to share learnings and disseminate the findings of an in-depth documentation exercise on multi-sector programming for nutrition - a sub-national study done in Kenya, Nepal and Senegal in 2017. Kenya’s case example had a strong agrinutrition bias and the agrinutrition forum was therefore a relevant forum to share the findings.

ENN’s Regional Knowledge Management Specialist for Asia, Dr. Charulatha Banerjee, speaks to Grana Pu Selvi, World Vision India and author of the article in Field Exchange Issue 58 titled Treatment of severe acute malnutrition through the Integrated Child Development Scheme in Jharkand State, India.

Grana shares the difficulties faced in setting up the project and what has been learnt from the experience for implementation ahead. We also briefly speak with Mahesh Nathan from the WASH team of World Vision. Mahesh outlined the organisation’s approaches to including WASH interventions in projects to improve nutrition outcomes.

Over two decades of civil conflict in Somalia interspersed with periodic droughts and floods have profoundly changed what used to be one of the most beautiful countries in east Africa to a nation which regularly receives huge amounts of humanitarian aid.   The latest humanitarian response plan (HRP)(2018) comes in at around one billion dollars. 90% of all aid to Somalia is humanitarian and the small amounts of development aid it receives means that the country is stuck in a cycle of humanitarian crisis and response.   The country has regularly teetered on the edge of, or experienced, full blown famine in 2017 and 2011 respectively. Rates of acute malnutrition (mainly wasting) have consistently been over the international emergency threshold and in 2018, a relatively good year, prevalence is estimated at 18%.  These depressing facts are one reason why ENN determined to carry out a country study in Somalia as part of its ongoing work to identify ways to increase the nutrition resilience of vulnerable populations in fragile and conflict contexts through strengthening the humanitarian development nexus (HDN). Somalia is ENN’s second country case study, (after Kenya), with a further three or four country studies planned until the end of 2019.

Two out of every five children in India under the age of 5 are stunted and half of the women are reported to be anaemic. Furthermore, the World Bank data indicates that India has one of the world’s highest demographics of children suffering from malnutrition, reportedly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa. These figures highlight the worrying nutrition situation in the  country and the urgent need for action.

Join ENN's Ambarka Youssoufane to find out how one multi-sector programme is being implemented at the sub-national level in Senegal.

This video looks at the Matam region with the USAID-funded Yaajeende Project, and accompanies a full report on Multi-sector programmes at the sub-national level.

ENN’s Charulatha Banerjee talks to NEX10 authors, Dr Md. M. Islam Bulbul and Dr Iftekhar Rashid, on the challenges and lessons learned in bringing multiple sectors together in Bangladesh to develop the country’s second National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN 2) – a costed plan that has brought together 17 'nutrition sensitive' ministries coordinated by the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council.

In this podcast, the editors of Nutrition Exchange (NEX) Carmel Dolan and Judith Hodge celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the publication, discussing how it began and how it has evolved to become a key publication in the nutrition sector for those working at national and sub-national level.

They describe what readers can expect from this 10^th issue including progress made to tackle malnutrition at sub-national level in Rajasthan and Balochistan, as well as the use of stakeholder mapping tools. This issue features 10 original articles and updates of news across the sector.

Watch and listen to an ENN videocast on ‘How to Write for NEX’, a short presentation on writing articles and making podcasts for Nutrition Exchange. Hear from authors and podcasters about how they found the process – and the opportunity it gave to collaborate with colleagues and share their experiences with others working in nutrition.

I participated in a Round Table organised by South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative SAFANSI In Colombo in June which was titled “Putting the Lens on the Consumer in Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture and Food Systems in South Asia”.

Before I share highlights from the 2-day event, here is some background on SAFANSI -

Marie has worked on infant and young child feeding in emergencies since 2001. She coordinates the IFE Core Group, an international interagency collaboration on infant and young child feeding in emergencies.

In the Irish language, there’s a phrase “rírá agus ruaille buaille” (trans: uproar, hubbub, tumult, commotion, ruction, rough & tumble)” which captures the essence of the escapades of the recent World Health Assembly (WHA) around the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Resolution in which ENN has been closely involved. Here’s our version of events.

The Compendium of Actions for Nutrition (CAN) is a facilitation resource to help foster multi-sectoral action at the country level, particularly on nutrition-related policy formulation and planning. It includes matrices of multi-sectoral nutrition actions (nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive), which are classified by the type of evidence available for them. Developed by the UN Network Secretariat, in consultation, with both external experts and those in UN agencies, the CAN was published in late 2016 and has since been used by a range of actors at the country level. This podcast delves into the Haiti experience.

Plus tôt ce mois-ci, j'ai assisté à une conférence organisée conjointement par l'Association sud-asiatique de coopération régionale (SAARC), le Bureau régional de l'UNICEF pour l'Asie du Sud (ROSA) ainsi que Nutrition International afin de débattre et d’identifier quelles actions pourraient permettre d’accélérer les soins nutritionnels des femmes durant leur grossesse et après l’accouchement en Asie du Sud. Des représentants des huit pays de la SAACR ont participé à la conférence, chacun ayant envoyé des hauts fonctionnaires représentant leurs gouvernements respectifs, ce qui est peut-être un gage de l’importance donnée à ce problème dans la région. 

ENN's Regional Knowledge Management Specialist for Asia, Dr Charulatha Banerjee, visited two districts in Nepal: Jumla and Kapilvastu, to see and hear how the country’s flagship Multi Sector Nutrition Plan (MSNP) is being implemented at the sub-national level.

Earlier this month, I attended a meeting organised jointly by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) together with Nutrition International to discuss and identify actions to accelerate the nutritional care of women during pregnancy and postpartum in South Asia. The meeting was attended by representatives from all 8 SAARC countries with all countries sending high level officials from Governments perhaps indicative of the importance of the issue in the region. 

Dan is the Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security and Research Director at the Feinstein International Center and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. He is the author, with Nisar Majid, of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures published by Oxford University Press in 2016 (and reviewed in Field Exchange 57). For the past four years, he has served on the Famine Review Committee for Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis—a committee that is mobilised whenever a possible famine declaration is a possible result of an analysis.

Join ENN's Lillian Karanja Odhiambo to see and hear how one multi-sector programmes is being implemented at the sub-national level in Kenya. This video focuses on implementation challenges and lessons from the USAID-funded Accelerated Value Chain Development Programme (AVCD) in Homa Bay and how current government led activities and structures enable and interact with this multi-sectoral programme.

Nutrition Exchange editors, Judith Hodge and Carmel Dolan, talk about the wide range of original articles and themes to be found in Issue 9 – everything from community programming in war-torn Yemen to husband schools in Niger, and SUN-focused articles on technical assistance for nutrition in Tajikistan and the Philippines.

ENN’s Azaria Morgan joins Dr. Fatima AK Sallam, a Project Manager at Soul for Development and Charity Zvandaziva, a Nutrition Specialist working for UNICEF Yemen to discuss community engagement and leadership in enabling increased access to nutrition and health services. The podcast highlights the work of the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) in pioneering the project and supporting the Village Development Committees in achieving self-sufficiency.

In this podcast (Part II of this two-part series) we continue the conversation about Technical Assistance (TA) provided to SUN countries under the DFID funded TAN Programme. In the previous podcast we spoke to the global coordinators in the two providers of TA under TAN – Nutrition International and the MQSUN+ consortium (lead by PATH).

In this podcast (Part I of two podcasts in this series) we talk to providers of Technical Assistance (TA) under the DFID funded TAN Programme. The TAN Programme provides TA to support to countries in the SUN Movement and to the global SUN Movement Secretariat in Geneva. In this podcast ENN’s Global Knowledge Management Coordinator, Tui Swinnen talks to the global TA coordinators from the two TA providers working under TAN: Loretta MacKinnon, Programme Director of the Nutrition International TAN team and Monica Kothari, Deputy MQSUN+/Monitoring & Evaluation Lead from PATH, the lead agency in the MQSUN+ consortium.

In this podcast, we speak with Dr. May Win Shwe, the Deputy Director of the Livestock Breeding and Irrigation Department in the Ministry of Agriculture in Myanmar. Dr. May discusses the use and influence of the Compendium of Actions for Nutrition (CAN) developed by the UN Network for SUN Secretariat in consultation with the UN partner agencies. The compendium is a facilitation resource intended to foster multi-sectoral dialogue at the country level. It includes matrices of potential multi-sectoral nutrition actions as well as accompanying narratives and bibliographies. 

Hou Kroeun is the Deputy Country Director at Helen Keller International in Cambodia. He is also the coordinator of the SUN Civil Society Alliance in Cambodia.

In this interview, he highlights the crucial role that civil society plays in the SUN Movement. He also discusses how the CSA in Cambodia was formed, and reflects on some of the challenges faced and how these have been overcome. Kroeun discusses the impact that the CSA has had by providing advisory services, technical assistance and guidance to the government on their Mid-Term review of food security and nutrition.

May Thukha Soe is a Nutrition Specialist for Plan International and a member of the SUN CSA Myanmar.

In this video she talks about the role of the CSA in bringing together not only international NGOs but also an increasing number of local NGOs. The aim of the CSA is to provide a collective voice to all for all these organisations. She reflects on how the CSA is building sub-national CSAs in order to engage and support local CSOs.

In this video, Dr. Uma Koirala describes the role of the SUN Civil Society Alliance in Nepal. She emphasises the need for civil society to advocate for nutrition at all levels; from the national, policy making level through to the district levels.

Uma talks about the importance of regional coordination and how it is enabling CSAs in Asia to share learning, experiences, challenges and best practices amongst regional counterparts. She also highlights the contribution that the CSA in Nepal is making to this group, drawing on their success in building the alliance in Nepal.

In this video, we hear from Belal Uddin a member of the SUN Civil Society Alliance (CSA) in Bangladesh.

Belal discusses the importance of civil society working in partnerships with other stakeholder groups such as the media and parliamentarians. In particular, he talks about the CSAs work to support capacity building for journalists in reporting on nutrition issues. He also reflects on the challenges the CSA has faced due to changes in internal governmental structures.

Dr Naseer Muhammad Nizamani is the Country Director for Nutrition International in Pakistan and is also a member of the Pakistan SUN Civil Society Alliance.

In this interview, Dr Nizamani talks about the formation of the CSA in Pakistan and their strong focus on building the capacity of local and national organisations. Dr Nizamani highlights some of the challenges the alliance has faced and how they have overcome them.

Mr Ismael Barmou, PDG de la Société de Transformation Alimentaire (STA) et coordonateur du réseau du secteur privé pour la nutrition du Niger et de l’Afrique de l’ouest, parle du rôle et de la mise en place du secteur privé dans les pays ouest africains.

Selon lui, il y’a une vraie dynamique et un fort intérêt pour les entreprises ouest africaines de participer à la mise en place de réseau du secteur privé pour le mouvement SUN. La mise en place de ces réseaux au niveau des pays est tout d’abord une nécessité pour répondre l’approche multi-sectorielle de la nutrition, c’est également une opportunité pour les entreprises de prendre une part de marché dans ce secteur ou tout simplement investirent dans le cadre de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE)

Alem Abey is the SUN Business Network Advisor in Ethiopia. Alem discusses the process undertaken in the establishment of the soon to be launched SBN in the country and the role the Network hopes to play in strengthening nutrition in Ethiopia. The SBN has a strategic plan which outlines the priority areas of work including providing technical assistance to private companies to add value to their products, and supporting food fortification in the country.

This is an interview with Katia Santos Dias, the Country Director for GAIN in Mozambique and co-convenor of the Mozambique SUN Business Network (SBN). In this interview, Katia discusses the role of the private sector in nutrition and what priorities the SUN Business Network in Mozambique have had since it was founded in early 2016. Katia shares that the private sector can play a number of different roles in tackling all forms of malnutrition at global and national level along with other stakeholders. This includes producing nutritious food, participating in awareness and nutrition education, and supporting national nutrition policy such as school feeding.

Enock Musinguzi discusses the successes and challenges of the SUN Business Network in Tanzania. Enock is the GAIN Country Director in Tanzania and co-ordinates the SBN in country. He has a background in food and nutritional science.

In this video interview we speak to Ralf Siwiti, the SBN Programme Manager for Zambia based at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Lusaka. Ralf has a background in marketing and many years of experience in the food and nutrition sector. In this interview, Ralf discusses how Zambia set up one of the first SUN Business Networks (SBN) in Africa and what progress has been made since.

In this video, Uduak Igbeka the SUN Business Network (SBN) coordinator of Nigeria speaks about her experience with the network. Uduak has an academic background in agricultural economics and has been with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) for four years, she has played a coordinating role with the SBN Nigeria for approximately 1.5 years. 

We recently attended the Global Nutrition Cluster Annual meeting in Geneva. ENN, as part of the process of pulling together a special issue of Field Exchange on Nutrition Cluster Coordination (which will be out in November), worked behind the scenes with cluster coordinators from 6 countries to help them to set out and synthesise what is going well in their focal countries, what challenges they face, what steps they can take to overcome these challenges and, what ‘asks’ they have of the global level. They presented on Day 1 to around 90 participants from UN agencies, NGOs, donors, academia and from other clusters. It was a day of very rich learning.

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Il y a quelque temps j'ai eu l'opportunité de participer à un événement régional à Dakar en Sénégal sur les approches nutritionnelles multisectorielles, organisé par ACF et ses partenaires. Cette rencontre rentrait dans le cadre de la restitution de l’étude "Research on Food Assistance for Nutrition Impact" (REFANI) réalisée au Niger en 2015. En plus de l'étude du Niger, le projet REFANI a également été mené au Pakistan et en Somalie par un consortium de partenaires dont ENN. Le projet de recherche REFANI avait pour objectif global d’évaluer l'impact des transferts monétaires (cash) sur la prévention de l’émaciation (malnutrition aigüe) dans les pays ciblés. ENN était responsable (avec ACF, partenaire de mise en œuvre) de l'étude au Pakistan où nous avons mis en place un essai contrôlé randomisé dont les résultats ont été publié dans l’article Impact evaluation of different cash-based intervention modalities on child and maternal nutritional status in Sindh Province, Pakistan, at 6 mo and at 1 y: A cluster randomised controlled trial. at 6 mo and at 1 y: A cluster randomised controlled trial. L’étude REFANI Pakistan a été une des toutes premières études à démontrer un impact du cash sur la malnutrition aigüe. ENN a également constaté des réductions importantes du retard de croissance lors de cette étude. A la rencontre de Dakar, à laquelle ont pris part plusieurs institutions, notamment les institutions gouvernementales et non gouvernementales, les organismes des Nations Unies, les instituts de recherche et les entreprises privées, les présentations ont été axées sur l'impact du cash et du WASH sur la malnutrition à travers 3 panels successifs :

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Some time ago I had the opportunity to attend a regional event for sharing multi-sectoral nutrition approaches, organized by ACF and its partners in Dakar, Senegal. This meeting was organised to share results of the "Research on Food Assistance for Nutrition Impact" (REFANI) study conducted in Niger in 2015. Apart from the Niger’s study, the REFANI Project was also conducted in Pakistan and Somalia by a consortium of partners who aimed to evaluate the impact of cash transfers and its impact pathway on the prevention of wasting in these countries. ENN was responsible (with the implementing partner ACF) for the study in Pakistan where we implemented a four-arm randomised control trial published here. The REFANI Pakistan study was amongst the first showing a reduced risk of wasting from a cash transfer programme in an area with very high levels of wasting. Interestingly, ENN also found significant reductions in stunting. At the Dakar meeting, attended by governmental and non-governmental institutions, United Nations agencies, research institutions and private companies, presentations focussed on cash and WASH impacts on nutrition as follows:

Lillian Karanja-Odhiambo, ENN’s Knowledge Management specialist for East Africa speaks to Mueni Mutunga the Chief of Nutrition from UNICEF’s Sudan country office about the experience of scaling up CMAM in Sudan. The podcast captures UNICEF’s perspective on the evolution in CMAM programming; successes in garnering government ownership; the role of information systems in informing programming and how scale up was achieved in a low resource setting. The interview provides useful insight into the interplay of humanitarian and development programming in approaching the Management of Acute Malnutrition.

In this podcast join Ali Dino Kunbher from Welthungerhilfe is in conversation with ENNs Dr Charulatha Banerjee (Asia Regional KM Specialist) discussing his article in Field Exchange 55 titled 'Multi-sector, nutrition-sensitive response to drought emergency in Pakistan'. The article and podcast capture experiences of an ECHO funded multisectoral nutrition project implemented in drought affected Sindh Province of Pakistan, the successes of this complex project and the numerous challenges faced in doing nutrition sensitive programming in an emergency setting. 

Dans cette interview Dr Kanta Malam Issa, coordinateur général de l’ONG ALIMA au Mali, discute avec Ambarka Youssoufane sur l’initiative URENI  école pour la formation des agents de santé sur la prise en charge de la Malnutrition Aigue Sévère au Mali. Cette interview complète l’article « Projet URENI Ecole de Dioïla »Formation des personnels de santé à la prise en charge de la Malnutrition Aigüe Sévère (MAS) en milieu hospitalier, paru dans Field Exchange 55.

In this podcast, Tarig Mekkawi, Nutrition specialist with UNICEF Sudan, speaks to Salwa Sorkti, the Director of the National Nutrition Program in the Federal Ministry of Health of Sudan about the experience of CMAM scale up in the country. The podcast captures the perspective of the Ministry of Health’s on the evolution in CMAM programming; successes in garnering government ownership; the role of information systems in informing programming and how scale up was achieved in a low resource setting. The interview provides useful insight into the interplay of humanitarian and development programming in approaching the Management of Acute Malnutrition. 

The SUN Civil Society Network (SUNCSN) has as we speak 2500 member organisations organised as National Civil Society Alliances (CSA) spread across 39 countries globally. 
In mid-July, I attended the SUN Civil Society Regional Learning Exchange – Asia co-organised by Global SUN CSN Secretariat and the Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition, Nepal (CSANN) in Kathmandu. 

I watched fellow Kenyans go through party primary elections this past April in preparation for the August General elections. This is when political parties nominate one candidate to represent them prior to the actual elections. This occurs for the lowest administrative office right up to the presidential seat. I had never really paid attention to party primaries before, but I noticed them this time due to huge voter turn-out - one would think it was the general election. In Kenya’s history, this year’s elections will be the second ever under devolution, and perhaps the first where citizens actually understand what devolution really means. The huge party primary turn-out was probably because Kenyans are serious about whom they want (or don’t want) to represent them at county level. I believe this level of interest in politics front has implications for public service delivery, and specifically, health and nutrition services.

In this podcast the editors of Nutrition Exchange (NEX) Carmel Dolan and Judith Hodge speak to Tui Swinnen (Global Knowledge Management Coordinator) about what readers can expect from this edition of NEX - issue 8. They discuss some of the highlights of the issue including some of the new geographic and thematic areas covered, and explain how people can contribute to future editions of the publication.

Joyce Barakat and Linda Shaker-Berbari from the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) in Lebanon join us in a conversation about the community kitchens in Lebanon, featured in an article in NEX 8. The community kitchens were established in order to improve the nutrition status for the vulnerable Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees living in the Bekka valley, north Lebanon.

In this interview Dr Charulatha Banerjee (Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist) speaks to Cecilia Garzon (Head of Nutrition) and Dr Aliahmad Khan (Nutritionist) in the WFP Pakistan Country Office in Islamabad. They discuss details of the Food & Nutrition Gap (FNG) Analysis and Cost of Diet Tool which were recently used to assess the nutitional situation in Pakistan.

Additionally, James Kingori, Regional Nutrition Officer in the WFP Regional Bureau (Bangkok) speaks in detail about the methodology and presents key lessons from Laos and Indonesia which also have done the FNG analysis. These conversations supplement an article which features in NEX 8 titled 'Filling the Nutrient Gap in Pakistan: Insights to address malnutrition'.

The Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES) is a USAID funded project that promotes dietary diversity through harmonising nutrition messages in agriculture. In this interview, Lillian Karanja, ENN’s East Africa’s Regional KM specialist speaks with Edye Kuyper who provides nutrition leadership within the INGENAES project, and Bertha Munthali, Nutrition Advisor for the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network. 

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Sonali Patnaik, Director of Arupa Mission Research Foundation, to learn more about the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) law in India including how this has the potential to impact on nutrition programming and spending in the country. 

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Au fil des années, la portée du travail d'ENN s'est étendue au-delà de l'accent mis initialement sur les contextes humanitaires pour englober un ensemble plus large de problèmes liés à l’émaciation et au retard de croissance dans des contextes d'urgence et/ou des contextes où la prévalence est élevée. Nous sommes de plus en plus intéressés par l'évolution de la politique et de l'environnement de programmation autour du traitement et de la prévention de la malnutrition. ENN est actuellement engagé dans l'exploration de la relation entre l’émaciation et le retard de croissance (voir le récent billet de Carmel Dolan sur le blog ici), le retard de croissance dans les situations d'urgence, et la façon dont les initiatives ciblées sur le retard de croissance et l’émaciation interagissent dans la pratique.

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Over the years the scope of ENN’s work has expanded beyond a focus on humanitarian contexts to encompass a broader set of issues around drivers of wasting and stunting in both high burden and emergency contexts. We are also increasingly interested in the evolving policy and programming environment around malnutrition treatment and prevention. ENN is currently engaged in exploring the relationship between wasting and stunting (see the recent blog piece by Carmel Dolan here), stunting in emergencies, and on how stunting or wasting focused initiatives interact in practice.

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At the beginning of this year, I attended a Nutrition International (NI) mission in the village of Amadou Bellinaoude-Santhiago, in the Kolda region to visit the Integrated Nutrition Project at Kédougou and Kolda (PINKK) implemented by NI.

Join Gladys Mugambi the head of Kenya’s Nutrition and Dietetics Unit in the Ministry of Health (and National SUN Focal Point) as she dicusses the nutrition sector’s past successes, current challenges and future perspectives in the country.

Gladys talks of the evolution of nutrition policy and programming in Kenya including what opportunities the SUN Movement has brought through work with in-country networks and sharing learning with other SUN countries in the region. She decribes the work currently going on in Kenya around financial tracking and the nutrition budget line, school feeding and working with devolved counties on nutrition.

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En début de cette année, j’ai accompagné une mission de Nutrition International (NI) dans le village de Amadou Bellinaoude-Santhiago, région de Kolda pour visiter le Projet Intégré de Nutrition à Kolda et Kédougou (PINKK) mis en œuvre par Nutrition International.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Pawan Agarwal, CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Mr Agarwal spoke to us about the progress in food fortification including the newly approved comprehensive food safety standards in India. He discusses the role of the Food Fortification Resource Centre and some of the challenges and opportunities of working in this area.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Dr Rajan Sankar, Director of Nutrition at Tata Trusts to understand more about philanthropic business networks in India, and how nutrition fits in with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. 

Dr Sankar discusses Tata Trusts philanthropic work and shared some opinions on how nutrition NGOs and private sector can work together. He also shared some of the opportunities and challenges that have arisen from the new CSR law introduced in India requiring all corporates to contribute 2% of profits to CSR.

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J'ai débuté en avril avec une visite d'une semaine au Myanmar; il s’agissait de ma première visite en tant que spécialiste régionale de la gestion des connaissances pour ENN. Myanmar et sa « première citoyenne », la prix Nobel de la paix, Aung San Suu Kyi, faisaient cette semaine-là l’objet d’une couverture médiatique importante pour des affaires litigieuses. Je suis cependant repartie, encouragée par le fait que ce pays, et son jeune gouvernement, avance dans la bonne direction pour améliorer l'état nutritionnel de sa population. Pour cette visite, j'ai accompagné Manpreet Kaur Chadha, qui est la responsable régionale pour l’Asie du programme TAN (Assistance Technique pour la Nutrition) de Nutrition International [NI] (anciennement Micronutrient Initiative) dont la mission est d’identifier les besoins d'assistance technique en matière de nutrition dans le pays. Financé par le ministère britannique du développement international (DFID), c’est ce même programme TAN qui comprend à la fois la gestion des connaissances par l’ENN et l’assistance technique par NI pour tous les pays membres du mouvement SUN.

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I began April with a weeklong visit to Myanmar, not my first visit but the first in my role as KM Specialist with ENN. Myanmar and its “first citizen” of sorts, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Syu Kyi were in the news in the same week on contentious issues. However, I returned home encouraged that this country, with its year-old government, is taking all the right first steps to improving the nutrition status of its population. For this visit I accompanied Manpreet Kaur Chadha the Nutrition International (formerly the Micronutrient Initiative) Asia Regional Manager for the TAN programme on her mission to identify nutrition technical assistance needs in the country. The TAN programme is the DFID funded package of support under which ENN provides knowledge management and NI technical assistance support to SUN countries.

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I hope some of you have heard of No Wasted Lives. For those who haven’t, now is the time to join forces with this coalition of partners working to address the biggest challenges we face today in the prevention and treatment acute malnutrition.Our ambitions are large and we need your help to accelerate global action to double the number of children receiving treatment to 6 million a year by 2020.

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Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Mr Stanley Chitekwe Chief of Nutrition UNICEF Nepal and discussed the details of Multi-Sector Nutrition Programming (MSNP) in Nepal. This conversation supplements an article which features in FEX 54 titled 'A journey to multi-sector nutrition programing in Nepal: evolution, processes and way forward.'

Join Marie McGrath and Jeremy Shoham, editors of Field Exchange in conversation with Tui Swinnen as they explore some of the key themes and content of this issue.

This FEX 54 podcast includes discussions of articles related to the links between humanitarian and development programming and the evolution of nutrition-sensitive multi-sector programming in the sector. There is also a special feature from the ACF conference the took place in Paris November 2016, that explored operational challenges and uptake of research on prevention and treatment of SAM.

Savita Malla is an Advocacy and Communication Specialist based within the National Nutrition and Food Security Secretariat (NNFSS) in Kathmandu, Nepal. In this video Savita discusses the national nutrition plan implementation and roll out in Nepal.

This video features as the second instalment in a three-part podcast and video series exploring the different stages of the Common Results Framework. 

Maria Rosa Boggio is a consultant in child nutrition based in Peru. Maria Rosa worked closely with the Roundtable on Poverty Reduction in country. In this video, Maria Rosa discusses the significant progress that has been made towards reducing malnutrition in Peru.

This video features as the final instalment in a three-part podcast and video series exploring the different stages of the Common Results Framework. Maria Rosa discusses the evaluation and strengthening of a CRF.

Dr Nassirou Ousmane is the Director of Nutrition at the Ministry of Health and the SUN Focal Point for Niger. In this video, Dr Ousmane discusses the progress made towards elaborating and costing the Nigerien national plan for nutrition.

This video features as the first instalment in a three-part podcast and video series exploring the different stages of the Common Results Framework. Dr. Ousmane discusses the planning and development stage of a CRF.

Join Tui Swinnen and Tamsin Walters for the final installment of this three-part podcast series on the Common Results Framework (CRF). In this podcast they discuss the importance of monitoring and evaluation progress towards shared goals.

We also speak to Maria Rosa Boggio, who has worked closely with the Roundtable on Poverty Reduction in Peru, about the significant progress that has been made towards reducing malnutrition in this country. We discussed how this approach evolved and the importance of a robust monitoring for tracking results. 

In this podcast, join Tui Swinnen and Tamsin Walters again as they discuss the implementation of national nutrition plans or Common Results Framework (CRF), moving on from the development and planning stages dicussed in the previous episode.

We also speak with Savita Malla, Advocacy and Communication Specialist based in the National Nutrition and Food Security Secretariat (NNFSS) in Kathmandu about national nutrition plan implementation and roll out in Nepal following up from our conversation with her in 2015.

In this podcast, Tui Swinnen, ENN's Global KM Coordinator hosts Tamsin Walters for a discussion about the planning and development stages of a Common Results Framework (CRF) looking at the evolution of the concept, how countries have worked through this early stage, and what guidance is now available. We also talk to SUN Focal Point for Niger about progress made towards elaborating and costing their national plan for nutrition following up from a discussion with in 2015.

Hello, I am Bridget Fenn, ENN’s long standing lead research investigator. I recently I gave a virtual presentation about the REFANI to participants at a research conference in Islamabad organised by Action Against Hunger. Despite the early start (5.30 a.m.), presenting remotely and missing the all-important human interaction afforded by face-to-face meetings, the presentation was very well received and there were plenty of questions and comments from the attendees…more about these below. 

Some of you will know that ENN has been coordinating a project with the expert steer of around 30 child growth and nutrition specialists from academia, donor and operational agencies. Collectively, we are known as the Wasting-Stunting Technical Interest Group (WAST-TIG) and we have been interacting across various work streams for a few years thanks to generous funding from Irish Aid and USAID OFDA.  

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How relevant are Africa’s political blocs in advancing the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement agenda? Can the movement tap into the initiatives by the region’s political blocs to achieve its goals?

In my experience with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement activities, I have noted the quest to establish multi-sectoral platforms to tackle malnutrition worldwide.  Thus, nutrition experts and nutrition advocates have embraced the multi-stakeholder approach to drive forward their agenda – bringing together governments, donors, UN agencies, civil societies, business/private sector, research and academic, to play their roles in this noble goal.

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Je suis Ambarka Youssoufane, en tant que Spécialiste Régional Gestion de connaissance pour l’Afrique de l’ouest et du Centre de ENN, il m’arrive souvent de visiter les pays de la sous-région et discuter avec différents acteurs de la nutrition et du Mouvement SUN. C’est dans ce cadre que j’ai visité le Tchad du 23 au 28 janvier dernier, où j’ai pu constater une forte dynamique autour du point focal SUN pays dans le cadre de la plateforme multi-acteurs pour une coordination multisectorielle des actions de nutrition dans ce pays. C’est de cette plateforme que je voudrais vous entretenir aujourd’hui.

We’ve recently been to meet with two Rome based UN agencies – World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as well as the UN Network for SUN (UNN). Our trip had a number of objectives; to discuss ENN’S SUN KM Project, highlight a forthcoming ENN hosted meeting to explore the need for a systematic review of nutrition sensitive interventions, share the latest issue of Nutrition Exchange, promote the new ENN Media Hub and to pick up on conversations held in late 2016.

Greetings! I am Dr Charulatha Banerjee, one of ENN’s Regional KM specialists working in Asia. 

On the 9th of January I visited the Indian state of Jharkhand to meet stakeholders working in nutrition. Jharkhand is a very recent “member state” of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, joining in September 2016, it is the 3rd Indian state to sign on to this global initiative. Jharkhand joins the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and 58 national governments in Asia, Africa and Latin America that have committed to working towards reducing their high burden of malnutrition. 

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Ms Mridula Sinha Director General of the Jharkhand State Nutrition Mission earlier this month to understand the evolution of the Nutrition Mission in the state, work done so far and plans for the future.

Ms Sinha has been working in child health and nutrition in Jharkhand for many years. In this interview she talks about the formation of the State Nutrition Mission, the complexities of nutrition governance in India and the architecture of the Mission as an independent body with the power to convene related departments. She presents the challenges faced by Jharkhand State, which is less than 2 decades old, and also the huge potential given the strong political will to render the State malnutrition free by 2030. She mentions the role of the private sector in nutrition in the State as well as the work of UNICEF and other partners to support the State Nutrition Mission’s work. 

ENN Project Assistant, Azaria Morgan introduces ENN's new Media Hub along with some other online features.

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ENN's regional Knowledge Management specialist Titus Mung'ou is in conversation with Tumaini Mikindo the Executive Director of the Parternship for Nutrition in Tanzania (PANITA). They discuss a recent article written by Tumaini for Nutrition Exchange 7 on the work PANITA has done on engaging with parliamentarians.

This podcast is a conversation between ENN's regional West Africa Knowledge Management specialist Ambarka Youssoufane and Abdoulaye Ka, National Director of Senegal's Cellule de Lutte Contre la Malnutrition (CLM) (Unit for the Fight Against Malnutition) and Senegal SUN Focal Point. They discuss an article in the current issue of Nutrition Exchange 7 on the role of advocacy in increasing the budget line for nutriiton in Senegal based on an interview with Abdoulaye Ka.

Join the editors of Nutrition Exchange (NEX) Judith Hodge and Carmel Dolan as they give an overview of the latest edition, Issue 7. This is the first NEX edition that focuses on learning and experiences around nutrition scale up and specifically learning from the SUN Movement. This work is part of ENNs 5-year Knowledge Management project to support SUN.

Ambarka is the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) knowledge management specialist in West and Central Africa. He is based in Dakar, Senegal. He has years of experience with roles in governmental and civil society authorities in Niger.

According to International Land Coalition, advocacy is “the strategic use of information to influence a policy, which affects the life of the weakest populations”.