United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

 

Refugee Nutrition Information System (RNIS),
No. 41 - Report on the Nutrition Situation of Refugees and Displaced Populations

April 2003

ISSN 1564-376X

Table of Contents

Highlights

 

West Africa The situation in West Africa is worsening. The destabilisation of Ivory Coast has led to vulnerability of people in country and has also had a major impact in nearby countries. In addition, cross-border population displacements of Ivorians, Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast and third national countries have been widespread, especially to Liberia. In Ivory Coast, whilst nutrition assessments have not shown dramatic situations, food security is decreasing, more or less quickly depending on the area. An upsurge in violence in Liberia, particularly in areas where many newly arrived people had settled, has obliged them as well as the resident population and displaced people, to move again to safer places in Liberia or to Guinea and Sierra Leone, or even back to Ivory Coast. The situation of these populations in constant movement because of attacks, and who are very difficult or impossible to reach because of insecurity, is extremely worrying. Moreover, donors' responses to the Liberia crisis have been very poor so far.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Several nutrition assessments have shown average to highly precarious nutrition situations in the eastern provinces where fighting is still raging.

Eritrea Donors' responses to the drought in Eritrea has been very low (only 25% of the food requirements have been received) and the food pipeline is far from sufficient to meet the needs of the estimated 1 m vulnerable people.

Zambia Reports from refugee camps in Zambia showed an acceptable nutritional status.

Sudan Despite some apparent advances in peace negotiations and improvement of humanitarian access, the nutrition situation remains highly precarious in the south of the country.

Faits majeurs

Afrique de l'Ouest La situation se dégrade en Afrique de l'Ouest. La déstabilisation de la Côte d'Ivoire a eu un impact majeur sur ses habitants dont la situation alimentaire se dégrade plus ou moins rapidement selon les régions. De plus, de nombreux Ivoiriens, Libériens réfugiés en Côte d'Ivoire et migrants économiques ont dû trouver refuge dans les pays voisins, dont le Libéria. En raison du regain de violence que connaît actuellement le pays, ces populations ont dû se déplacer à nouveau, ainsi que les populations résidentes et les déplacés internes, vers des zones plus calmes au Liberia ou vers la Guinée ou la Sierra Leone. Certains sont même retournés en Côte d'Ivoire. En raison de l'insécurité au Liberia, les populations sont très difficiles à atteindre par l'aide humanitaire. De plus, la réponse des pays donateurs à la crise libérienne a été jusqu'à présent très faible.

République Démocratique du Congo Plusieurs évaluations nutritionnelles ont montré des situations moyennes à extrêmement précaires dans les provinces de l'est du pays où les combats font rage.

Erythrée La réponse des pays donateurs à la sécheresse qui affecte un million de personnes a été très faible. Jusqu'à présent, seulement 25% des besoins en aide alimentaire ont été financés.

Zambie La situation nutritionnelle des réfugiés en Zambie semble acceptable, selon les résultats d’enquêtes nutritionnelles.

Soudan Malgré certains progrès dans les négociations de paix et une amélioration de l'accès aux populations, la situation nutritionnelle reste extrêmement précaire dans le sud du pays.

Risk Factors Affecting Nutrition in Selected Situations

Situations in the table below are classed into five categories (row 1) relating to prevalence and or risk of malnutrition (I—very high risk/prevalence, II—high risk/prevalence, III—moderate risk/prevalence, IV—not at elevated risk/prevalence, V-unknown risk/prevalence, for further explanation see at the end of the report). The prevalence/risk is indirectly affected by both the underlying causes of malnutrition, relating to food, health and care (rows 2 – 4) and the constraints limiting humanitarian response (rows 5 –8). These categories are summations of the causes of malnutrition and the humanitarian response, but should not be used in isolation to prescribe the necessary response.

Factor Zambia
Refugees

 

 Ivory Coast
War affected population

 

 Uganda
IDPs		 Somalia
Returnees in Hargeisa		 Burundi
Kayanza province 		South Sudan
War affected
1. Nutritional risk category IV III II II II/III I
2. Public Health Environment
(water, shelter, overcrowding, access to health services)		 ? O X X O X
3. Social & Care Environment
(Social organisations and networks, Women’s role, status and rights)		 ? ?O ?O X O X
4. Food Security ü O O X X X
5. Accessibility to Population ü O ü X O X
6. General resources
   - food (gen stocks)
   - non-food
ü
ü
O
O
O
O
X
X
O
O
X
X
7. Personnel* ? ? ?O ?O O X
8. Information O O O O O O

ü Adequate
O Mixed
X Problem
?ü Don’t know, but probably adequate
?X Don’t know, but probably inadequate
?O Don’t know, but probably mixed  
* This refers to both adequate presence and training of NGOs and local staff where security allows

 

This report is issued on the general responsibility of the Secretariat of the UN System/Standing Committee on Nutrition; the material it contains should not be regarded as necessarily endorsed by, or reflecting the official positions of the UNS/SCN and its UN member agencies. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the UNS/SCN or its UN member agencies. concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This report was compiled by Claudine Prudhon of the UNS/SCN Secretariat
Sarah Philpot assisted in the editing

The chairman of the UNS/SCN is Catherine Bertini

The SCN Secretariat and the RNIS Coordinator extend most sincere thanks to all those individuals and agencies who have provided information and time for this issue, and hope to continue to develop the excellent collaboration which has been forged over the years.

If you have information to contribute to forthcoming reports, or would like to request back issues of the Reports on the Nutrition Situation of Refugees and Displaced Populations (RNIS), please contact:

Claudine Prudhon, RNIS Coordinator, UNS/Standing Committee on Nutrition
20, avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, SWITZERLAND
Tel: +(41-22) 791.04.56, Fax: +(41-22) 798.88.91,
Email: scn@who.int Web: http://www.unsystem.org/scn 

Funding support is gratefully acknowledged from CIDA, DFA (Ireland), DFID (UK), UNHCR, and WFP.

This report was made possible through the support provided to the Food and Nutrition Assistance (FANta) Project by the Office of Health and Nutrition Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research at the U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. HNE-A-00-98-00046-00 awarded to the Academy for Educational Development(AED). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.Agency for International Development.

ISSN 1564-376X