Topic: MAM (Prevention & treatment of Moderate Acute Malnutrition)

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

Lire ce blog en francais

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.

Read this blog in English

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.