Editorial
We are delighted to share with you Issue 5 of Nutrition Exchange. In keeping with our aim to have the majority of NEX content written by national actors engaged in nutrition specific and sensitive activities, this issue features nine original articles from Kenya, Niger, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi and Namibia, as well as an article from an African nutrition network. This issue also includes summaries of nutrition related reviews, research, and news that we feel could be of interest to our readers.
The original articles cover a range of programmatic experiences and policy issues. Two articles from Zimbabwe and Namibia focus on some of the challenges associated with the treatment of acute malnutrition, particularly management, supervision and supply logistics. In Zimbabwe, a survey of providers and programme users highlight the need for improved pipeline for supplies, particularly in the rural treatment centres. In Namibia, learning from the national immunization programme is being applied to the management of acute malnutrition to strengthen programme management, training and information systems.
Four articles from Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya focus on food security and agricultural projects with a nutrition focus. A project in refugee camps in Rwanda is described where kitchen garden, poultry and rabbit rearing support was provided to families with acutely malnourished children to help families diversify dietary intake and to generate additional income. An article from the perspective of the Scaling Up Nutrition Focal Point in Zambia advocates for further agriculture policy reform to diversify crop production to improve the population’s diets. In Malawi, a pilot school-feeding project is using solar powered irrigation to grow vegetables, corn and soya, to provide a potentially sustainable source of school meals and improve girl’s attendance. Positive pilot results suggest potential for wider replication. Finally, an innovative reality television show in Kenya, which works with rural farmers to improve productivity, income and dietary diversity, demonstrates the opportunities that different media offer for communicating with farmers in the region.
The articles from Niger and Kenya describe efforts to integrate nutrition into the activities of other sectors in order to address the underlying determinants of undernutrition. A capacity building initiative in Niger has brought together multiple sectors to develop nutrition problem and solution trees and has identified ways to incorporate nutrition into their planning. In Kenya, nutrition is being integrated into assessments of highly vulnerable communities to further the understanding of risks and use this information to design and implement nutrition resilience interventions.
The African Graduate’s Nutrition Student Network, a platform for networking, capacity building and development of nutrition ‘champions’ across the continent, is profiled in an article.
This issue also includes summaries of global developments including the Global Nutrition Report which tracks country level progress in improving nutrition. A newly launched financing facility called the Power of Nutrition aims to provide an additional US$ 1 billion to countries with a high burden of undernutrition.
Summaries of recent publications include a Lancet article that advocates for more to be done to address child mortality by viewing efforts to address child mortality as a continuum of care across reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health. A report on Adolescent Nutrition highlights the urgent need to address the nutrition needs of adolescent girls to break the cycle of inter-generational undernutrition. A study looking at child growth patterns reports that catch up growth is possible during infancy and in the years beyond. Another study looking at the same data sets assesses changes in child growth and the association with education and cognitive development and concludes that improvements in child growth, after early faltering, might have significant benefits on schooling and cognitive achievement. Additionally, two papers on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) highlight the importance of WASH in improving nutrition outcomes.
Finally, a number of Field articles previously featured in ENN’s Field Exchange are summarised. These include experience and results from a national survey in Mali to assess coverage for the treatment of acute malnutrition, which has resulted in actions to improve programme access. Experiences from Bangladesh and Kenya using a new method of nutrition causal analysis to inform programming are also featured along with an integrated programme to increase resilience in pastoral communities often faced with nutrition and livelihood crises. A food security and nutrition programme in Nepal that resulted in improved dietary diversity and nutrition knowledge is also summarized.
We would like to offer a warm thanks to all those who contributed articles for this issue. We strongly encourage those of you who have experiences and learning to share, to consider writing an article for our next issue. We particularly welcome articles from our Asia and Middle East readers.
The Nutrition Exchange Editorial team,
Carmel, Valerie and Chloe
More like this
FEX: Regional Perspective: Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)
Charity Zvandaziva is a Regional Nutrition Specialist for UNICEF ESA Regional Office (ESARO) Chloe Angood is a Knowledge Management Consultant working for UNICEF...
FEX: FEX Digest
Read here summarised and simplified versions of select Field Exchange articles for a multi-sectoral audience. To sign up to the Field Exchange Digest alerts, please click...
en-net: Recommended Conferences
Seeking recommendations on most meaningful conferences related to emergency nutrition response and/or post-disaster response development programming Apply for learning...
FEX: Editorial
View this article as a pdf Dear Field Exchange readers, Welcome to the 64th edition of Field Exchange. We are delighted to kick start 2021 featuring a special section on...
FEX: Junior Farmer Field Life Schools in Namibia and Swaziland
Entrance sign to one of the JFFL Schools Thanks to James Breen, FAO Regional Emergency Agronomist in South Africa, for coordinating the production of this field article, John...
NEX: Editorial
We are pleased to share with you Issue 4 of Nutrition Exchange (NEX). In addition to the usual summaries of important nutrition-related publications, this issue features 12...
en-net: Please help me find African COVID-19 maternal and newborn care guidance
Hello, With colleagues, I am conducting some research looking at COVID-19 guidance for pregnancy, maternal, and newborn care to see how supportive or unsupportive they are...
FEX: Issue 32 Editorial
The devil is in the detail In this edition of Field Exchange we have a number of field articles that address very detailed programming issues. A field article by ACF deals...
NEX: Editorial
This issue of Nutrition Exchange is our sixth and we continue to profile the writing of those working at national and sub-national level. This issue contains 13 original...
ENN Latest
New technical brief on Adolescent-specific reporting of nutritional status. How the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) update benefits policy and programming.This technical...
FEX: Complementary Feeding in Emergencies Special Section
Global crises are having a severely detrimental impact on the diets of young children, making this featured special section on complementary feeding in fragile and emergency...
FEX: From the editor
Queing for cash transfer Four of the six field articles in this issue of Field Exchange endeavour to demonstrate some form of intervention impact. The programmes are all very...
FEX: References for Special Supplement 1
Women selling food in South Sudan AbuSaleh A, 1993. Cost effectiveness of feeding programs in Hartisheik A camp, for Somali refugees, Ethiopia 1988-1989. Unpublished report...
FEX: Conference on Government experiences of CMAM scale-up
Participants in the CMAM Conference 2011, Addis Ababa In November 2011, ENN, in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) hosted a 4-day conference in Addis Ababa at...
Our team
Nigel Tricks ENN Chief Executive Officer Nigel is a British humanitarian who has led international aid agencies in Africa and Asia for the last 30 years. He has overseen...
FEX: A descriptive analysis of gaps in nutrition services across multiple countries
View this article as a pdf This is a summary of the following paper: Ramadan M, Muthee T, Okara L et al. (2023) Existing gaps and missed opportunities in delivering quality...
FEX: From the editor
An aerial view of Darfur, Sudan The role of data and analytical tools in guiding and evaluating emergency programming figures strongly in this issue of Field Exchange. There...
FEX: Exit strategies in OVC programming in Namibia
By Marie McGrath, ENN ENN recently visited several collaborative FAO-WFP programmes in Swaziland and the Caprivi region of north-eastern Namibia - both share some of the...
FEX: Framework for integration of management of SAM into national health systems
By Katrien Khoos and Anne Berton-Rafael Katrien Ghoos is the Nutrition Specialist on Management of Acute Malnutrition ,Nutrition Information Systems, Emergencies and Disaster...
FEX: Issue 24 Editorial
All the field articles in this issue come from either AAH or ACF staff. Two pieces deal with programmes targeted at the severely malnourished. Thierry Muriele writes about the...
Reference this page
Editors (). Editorial. Nutrition Exchange 5, May 2015. p3. www.ennonline.net/nex/5/editorial
(ENN_5120)