THEMATIC AREA
Nutrition in emergencies and humanitarian crises
Malnutrition in humanitarian action goes far beyond visible acute malnutrition. This free open-access learning resource covers its multiple forms, from wasting and stunting to micronutrient deficiencies and low birth weight. Alongside this, key prevention and response interventions are analysed, from the protection of breastfeeding to early childhood development care. You will find AI-assisted reflection exercises on each page and a case study at the end.
8
pages
Why is there still hunger and famine in the world?
Understanding hunger goes far beyond knowing the figures and statistics. Working in humanitarian action requires understanding why food insecurity persists despite the world producing enough food, how it relates to malnutrition and child mortality, and at what point food insecurity escalates into famine.
The two pages in this section address this topic from complementary angles. The first analyses hunger, its definitions, its measurement, and its relationship with conflicts and humanitarian crises, while the second focuses on famines, a technical term that is difficult to understand and carries significant political implications.
- Hunger can be understood as an individual sensation, through its relationship with the vicious cycle of extreme poverty, as food insecurity, or as an injustice and a violation of the right to food.
- 28% of the world's population and 59% of the population in Africa live in moderate or severe food insecurity.
- Hunger leads to malnutrition, associated with 18.8% of all deaths in children under five.
- Hunger has many different causes, and they all worsen during humanitarian crises, when conflicts force people to flee and public services collapse.
10-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
- A famine is a technical definition that requires three conditions to be simultaneously met: extreme food insecurity, acute malnutrition, and excessive mortality. All three criteria must exceed an established threshold in a population.
- Since the technical definition of famine was established (2004), only five have been declared: Somalia, South Sudan (twice), Sudan, and the Gaza Strip.
- Few have been declared not because hunger does not exist, but because confirming a famine is very difficult when humanitarian access is restricted and information systems collapse.
- Official famine declarations are highly politicized: those responsible for causing a famine rarely have incentives to acknowledge it.
5-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
What types of malnutrition exist?
Malnutrition is not a single problem. Nor is it a single uniform condition. Under the term malnutrition, very different health problems are grouped together that require completely different approaches for their diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Furthermore, malnutrition not only includes problems caused by dietary deficits such as acute malnutrition, underweight, chronic malnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies, but also by excesses, such as obesity and overweight.
This section focuses on acute malnutrition, chronic malnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. To these three types of malnutrition, a fourth condition is added: premature birth or low birth weight. This is not a type of malnutrition in itself, but it is the earliest consequence of malnutrition and disease during pregnancy.
- Acute malnutrition affects 42.8 million children under the age of five. This figure is distributed very unevenly, with large concentrations in humanitarian crises and emergencies.
- Acute malnutrition can be diagnosed with complementary methods, such as the weight-for-height index and mid-upper arm circumference, each with its own limitations and challenges.
- The treatment of acute malnutrition has progressively shifted to being carried out predominantly in the community, thanks to RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food).
- Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, the coverage challenge in nutrition programmes remains enormous: 2 out of 3 children with severe acute malnutrition have no access to treatment.
13-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
- Chronic malnutrition affects 23.2% of children under 5 years old, causing cognitive, educational, and economic consequences that last a lifetime.
- There is no effective treatment. Chronic malnutrition cannot be reversed with nutritional supplements, but there is a window of opportunity for child development in the first thousand days of life, from conception to two years of age.
- It receives significantly less humanitarian attention than acute malnutrition, despite having a similar effect on child mortality and a large long-term impact.
5-minute read + 2 AI-assisted reflection questions
→ Read more.
- Micronutrient deficiencies affect half of all children under 5 years of age and two thirds of women of reproductive age. They have significant consequences for immunity, cognitive development, and mortality, but do not always present with clearly visible symptoms.
- The most prevalent are deficiencies in iron, vitamin A, zinc, folic acid, and vitamin D. In some humanitarian contexts, deficiencies such as scurvy, pellagra, and beriberi, which are almost forgotten, may reappear.
- The most effective interventions include micronutrient supplementation, food fortification, and gender-sensitive cash transfers.
5-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
- One in four live newborns is premature, small for gestational age, or both. This is captured under the category "small and vulnerable newborns", a broader and more precise term than the classic "low birth weight".
- 55% of neonatal deaths are attributed to these conditions, which also increase the risk of cognitive delay, chronic diseases, and other forms of malnutrition.
- Half of all cases of small and vulnerable newborns are explained by maternal malnutrition, infections during pregnancy, and environmental factors such as gender-based violence and pollution.
- Access to eight proven prenatal interventions could prevent 18% of low birth weight cases and 20% of neonatal deaths.
8-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
How to protect child nutrition and development in humanitarian crises?
This section includes two pages focused on priorities for children under two or three years of age and for those who care for them. The first addresses infant and young child feeding, which must be promoted in stable contexts and protected in emergencies, with approaches that are sometimes complementary. The second broadens the perspective towards child development and how to sustain caregiving practices across the five dimensions of nurturing care when humanitarian crises destroy the family and community environment that supports them.
- Only 44% of newborns receive exclusive breastfeeding during their first 6 months of life.
- Breastfeeding has fundamental nutritional and immunological properties that should be leveraged from the first hour after birth.
- Formula milk cannot replicate the properties of breast milk, and its use in emergency contexts multiplies the risk of diarrhea and death when clean water and hygiene facilities are scarce. Unsolicited donations of breast milk substitutes pose a significant risk to infant nutrition in humanitarian crises.
- In emergencies, infant and young child feeding must be protected. Actions such as the creation of baby-friendly spaces in displaced communities provide a safe environment and facilitate nutritional counselling and psychosocial support.
13-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
- Child development depends on five complementary dimensions: responsive caregiving, protection, health, nutrition, and learning opportunities.
- In humanitarian emergencies, caregivers lose the support they need to ensure these five dimensions: safety, social networks, and essential services.
- Supporting caregivers is just as important as attending to their children. Doing so requires paying attention to their mental health, their wellbeing, and their capacity to solve problems during difficult times for the family.
5-minute read + 1 AI-assisted reflection question
→ Read more.
Multi-sectoral integration and case study: nutrition in humanitarian action
Have you read all the pages? Well, I propose an exercise for you to put your knowledge into practice. It consists of a case study with a series of questions. Once you've answered them, press the button for NotebookLM to open. Paste the content of your clipboard there (Ctrl+V on Windows, Command+V on Mac) to get feedback.
🧠 Case study
You are working in a region facing a complex crisis driven by a prolonged conflict and extreme drought. According to the latest data, food insecurity is at IPC Phase 4. The nutrition cluster estimates that the global prevalence of acute malnutrition exceeds 10%, although complete and up-to-date information is not available. Many families are displaced in informal settlements without adequate sanitation. Humanitarian funding for sexual, reproductive, maternal and neonatal health has been drastically cut, affecting the availability of contraceptives and antenatal care.
As the health and nutrition manager of an NGO working in the area, you are supporting a programme of community health and nutrition workers who visit families. You visit the shelter of Amina, a recently displaced mother, and her husband Abdulaye. She tells you that her youngest child, a 4-month-old boy, was born very small, and that because she feels she does not have enough milk to feed him, she has started giving him water and some maize porridge. She also explains that her 3-year-old daughter has had diarrhoea several times in recent days and is very weak. Amina admits feeling exhausted, very alone, and overwhelmed by a persistent sadness that prevents her from caring for her children as she would like. Abdulaye is very irritable and is demanding medicines and formula milk for the baby. At a moment when Abdulaye is not listening, Amina also mentions that she has been unable to access family planning since fleeing her village.
1. What vital risks exist for both children and what are their causes?
2. What kind of support do you think Amina and Abdulaye need as caregivers?
3. How do you think these risks should be addressed, both at the level of this family and in the informal settlement where they live?
4. What nutrition-related services do you think should be offered at the primary health care centre that the NGO is supporting near this settlement?
- Think and write your answer.
- Click on «Copy and open».
- Paste to receive feedback.
📚 This is the NotebookLM of this learning pathway. It uses only carefully selected references. | What is NotebookLM?
Clearly, nutrition in humanitarian emergencies is closely related to other priorities, such as water, hygiene and sanitation to reduce the risk of diarrheal infections, primary health care, as the basis of a health system that allows the integration of nutrition services with wide coverage, mental-health and psychosocial support, to comprehensively address the well-being of families and caregivers, or sexual and reproductive health in general, to provide access to contraception and family planning, reduce the risk of gender-based violence, and protect the health of pregnant women.