United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

SCN Working Group on Nutrition in Emergencies

held during the ACC/SCN's 29th Session in Berlin, Germany, March 2002

Presented by Frances Mason (ACF)

1. RNIS proposal (focal point: Helen Young): the working group has agreed on the importance of the proposal to assess the technical basis and empirical origins of current field approaches to nutrition surveys, the purpose of which is to serve as a normative reference for agency policies, guidelines and training initiatives. The working group stressed the importance of the need for funding for this initiative.
2. A new initiative by the US Government to strengthen the capacity for monitoring standard anthropometric and mortality indicators was discussed. A number of concerns were raised by the group with regard to the need for qualitative indicators to always be made alongside these quantitative indicators. It was also noted that the proposal for the RNIS policy paper would be a useful pre-cursor or parallel analytical activity for the planned workshop to held by the US. The task force will remain engaged with Tom Marchione and Anne Ralte. Save the Children UK presented recent experience of measuring mortality in Sudan.
3. The thematic group on Infant Feeding in Emergencies has achieved a huge amount through the development of the operational guidance and the translation of these into four languages and the development of two training modules. It is extremely important that the work is seen through to completion, including pilot testing. This requires both funding and the technical input of the task force and working group members.
4. The capacity building thematic group (focal point: Annalies Borrel) presented their work to date. This includes developing a work plan and preparation of training inventory which will be put onto NutritionNet for further consultation.
5. A new thematic group was initiated for home-based treatment / community therapeutic feeding (focal point: Mija Tesse Ververs). Recent experience and future proposed strategies were presented by ValidInternational, Save the Children-UK and Action contre la Faim. The task force recommended that plans to use RUTF should only be done in the context of very careful analysis. Furthermore, any plan to produce alternative RUTF should be subject to strict ethical reviews.
6. A second new thematic group was initiated, looking at the myths established over food and nutrition programmes (focal point: Susanne Jaspars). Working group members have agreed to provide evidence that supports or negates these myths.
7. The refugee thematic group (focal point: Zahra Mirghani) circulated a paper to initiate discussion of activities.
8. NutritionNet - an interactive platform for nutrition professionals to share detailed knowledge about nutritional research and operations has been initiated by MSF-Holland. The task force group recommended that those who have not already registered should do so. It is intended that NutritionNet can be used also as a forum for constructive work amongst the thematic groups.
9. The task force agreed that it was time to have an updated assessment of how the RNIS is being used. The working group were requested to provide suggestions for how the functioning of the RNIS can be improved.
10. Finally thanks and much appreciation was given to the outgoing chair, Anna Taylor and the two secretaries, Fiona O'Reilly and Brian Jones. Both Anna and Fiona need to be replaced. Nominations have been made which will be proposed to the SCN secretariat.