Shaping the future: Our strategy for research and innovation in humanitarian response.
Recent years have seen record levels of rising acute food insecurity. This trend is likely to continue as the drivers of food insecurity persist – climate crisis, economic upheaval and acute and protracted conflicts around the world. Women, adolescent girls and children are particularly vulnerable to shocks that negatively impact livelihoods, incomes and food access, leading to worsened health and nutritional status. Children are particularly likely to suffer wasting in areas of acute food insecurity, with potentially long-term consequences for their physical and cognitive development. Preventing undernutrition is critical.
Through our open research and innovation calls we have funded individual studies addressing aspects of nutrition and food insecurity. R2HC has also funded this work in a specialised Horn of Africa responsive call in 2017.
However the scale of the current global food insecurity crisis led us to undertake a consultation process with key humanitarian actors, to identify possible areas where we could add value to food insecurity crises. This consultation identified a clear gap in evidence-based practice: the lack of comprehensive, practical guidance and tools to prevent undernutrition for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in food insecure contexts. Our new programme of research aims to address this gap. This blog shares the progress we have made so far: Tackling Undernutrition: Pioneering Prevention Efforts Towards Zero Hunger in Humanitarian Crisis.
To strengthen the prevention of undernutrition in humanitarian settings, this programme of research will be implemented over five years with three distinct phases.
This evidence synthesis commissioned under Phase 1 of our new research programme aims to synthesise the literature on prevention of undernutrition for children less than five years, adolescent girls, and pregnant and breastfeeding women in food insecure/ humanitarian settings. This will inform the development of "prevention packages" that we intend to test in Phase 2.
In direct response to an identified evidence-gap on the ground in the Horn of Africa we commissioned a scoping review. The review explored how malnutrition and food insecurity increases risks of disease, maternal and child morbidity and mortality, and violence.
Published in March 2023 the review highlights the need for a more collaborative approach between nutrition and health, and how each one supports the other in reducing vulnerability to disease and death among populations affected by crisis. The findings provide the evidence health actors need to advocate to donors for more funding, and to push for greater integration of health programming in the strategic response to food insecurity and malnutrition.
As the global food insecurity situation worsens, this scoping review has assessed the evidence linking food insecurity, malnutrition, ill health and mortality among women and children under five in humanitarian contexts.
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