EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION PROBLEMS

2.3 EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION PROBLEMS Weighing a child using the Salter scale

First, let’s look at the nutrition problems… Problem 1: Undernutrition can become epidemic in displaced populations, when normal access to food is cut off and rates of infectious disease rapidly increase. UNHCR photo, L. Taylor, Upper Lofa Country Liberia, 1993

Malnutrition High energyUtilization Lowered Resistance Poor Appetite Infection • Measles • Diarrhea • Pneumonia • Malaria A vicious cycle

Problem 2: The underlying causes of malnutrition in the affected population are not understood or addressed. UN photograph, Operation Lifeline Sudan, August 1998

Conceptual framework of the causes of undernutrition See page 146 Short term consequences Long term consequences: abilities, size, disease Maternal & child undernutrition IMMEDIATE CAUSES Inadequate dietary intake Disease Inadequate maternal intake, poor feeding practices Household food insecurity Unhealthy household, poor health services Shocks, trends, seasonality, social, economic, cultural, and political environment UNDERLYING CAUSES Poor livelihood, Poverty Insufficient livelihood assets BASIC CAUSES

Problem 3: Standardized food baskets are not nutritionally adequate for everyone UN photo, Roghani Refugee Camp, Afghan/Pakistan border, December - 2001

Daily Energy Requirements AVERAGE DAILY REQUIREMENT: 2100 Kcal/person/day Based on WHO technical Report No. 724 and UN Pop. Data, mid 1995 nutrition InterWorks/UNHCR

Problem 4: It is difficult to determine and administer the starting and stopping of selective feeding programs for the severely malnourished WFP photo /Ramin Rafirasme - Sierra Leone - Makeni nutritional/ therapeutic centre.

Problem 5: Normally diverse food sources are replaced by standard rations resulting in severe micronutrient deficiencies, even when overall calorie requirements are met. www.echt.chm.msu.edu www.healthcentral.com signs of SCURVY

Signs of pellagra… Cassal's necklace Photo: P. Delchevalerie http://www.ennonline.net/fex/10/fa12.html

Problem 6: Food types provided through international mechanisms often do not match customary foods, and so may be traded at a loss, or wasted.

Problem 7: It is often difficult to conduct a credible nutrition survey upon which to design suplementary feeding programmes. UNHCR photo

(more) problems in food security and food transfer programs Guardian photo

Problem 8 Poor accountability and control Ethnic Albanian refugees reach for a loaf of bread being distributed in the center of Kukes, Albania. - Washington Post photo

Problem 9 Families cannot attain self-sufficiency

A Food Aid Problem 20,000 people have collected in a drought-induced IDP camp in Domistan. Most of these are small rural farmers who have migrated to the outskirts of this large city seeking work and food. Several NGOs have been providing food and shelter here for the last two years. The drought is in its third year, but there are heavy snows now and the new crop in the Spring may be quite good, if people can plant wheat. • These people have no other access to food for the next 5 months • Local market prices for wheat are low, and the markets are full of internationally donated wheat. • The IDPs have consumed all of their livestock and funds. Many are deeply in debt to family members. • Outline a basic Food Aid program for this group for one year. Donors have decided to jointly fund only one consolidated program for the next year.

Your flip chart should look something like this…... Food Aid Proposal by Us • 1. Goal: Blah blah blah • 2. Assumptions: Yadda, yadda, yadda, etc. • 3. Activities • 3.1…………... • 3.2…………... • 3.3……………. • 3.4……………... • 4: Inputs • 4.1……………. • 4.2…………... • 4.3………………..

Problem 10 Loss, waste, and spoilage FAO photo

Problem 11 Poor (or no) targeting to specific need www.un.org/av/photo/subjects/images/187724.jpg

For the 20,000 famine- affected IDPs from the last problem… What specific targeting within this community might be required? How would you determine this?

Problem 12 Difficult logistics for delivery

Problem 13 Food distribution can destabilize local farmers, markets, and relationships - reducing longer-term food security FAO photo

Problem 14 No “control” over distributed items IRC photo, Jalazai Refugee Camp, 2001

Distribution Pros and Cons - Fill in the Chart….. Distribute Food to: Heads of families Group or social leaders Individuals Primary School students Workers CONS PROS

Problem 15 The most at risk do not receive distributed food FAO photo

CONCLUSIONS ON NUTRITION • Nutrition and malnutrition are fields based on, and requiring, trained professional nutritionists • Even so, avoiding serious malnutrition,is based on and requires meeting basic standards of service in many other sectors, such as water, sanitation, health, and shelter. • While this information does not make you professional nutritionists, it does raise your ability to better understand the inter-related nature of nutrition/malnutrition and the other service support sectors

CONCLUSIONS ON FOOD TRANSFER PROBLEMS • Logistics form a primary part of food aid programs, but even good logistics cannot overcome poor targeting and distribution, which may be even more difficult to solve • Distribution systems must be seen to be equitable, and still be prioritized to those most in need • Food transfer should be done in ways that harm local capacities and economic structures the least.

EMERGENCY FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION PROBLEMS