Global Nutrition Cluster
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The Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) was established in 2006 with a vision to safeguard and improve the nutritional status of emergency affected populations by ensuring a coordinated, appropriate response that is predictable, timely, effective and at scale. The GNC is currently made up of 37 partner organizations at the global level. More details are available within this website (about the GNC, GNC members, as well as country nutrition clusters). |
GNC events
Upcoming: We are happy to announce that the next Annual GNC meeting will be held during the second week of July (8-12.07.2012) in Geneva, Switzerland. Please confirm your participation by June 20th to chug@unicef.org. The structure of the meeting was agreed as follows:
- Monday, 8 July – AWG and SAG meetings at UNICEF.
- Tuesday to Thursday, 9 to11 July – Main meeting at WCC
- Friday, 12 July – NCCs meeting at UNICEF.
To see a full list of upcoming GNC events, please click on 'Agenda'
Updates from the GNC
14-Jun-2013: The next GNC partners call has been reschedulled for 25th of June 2013.
13-Jun-2013: We are pleased to announce that in preparation of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), jointly being organized by FAO and WHO in cooperation with IFAD, IFPRI, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, WTO, WFP and the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF), the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) is hosting a series of online discussions that explore the current thinking on nutrition-related issues involving a broader range of stakeholders. These discussions are convened by the ICN2 Secretariat in FAO with the aim to feed into a technical meeting to be held at FAO Headquarters 13-15 November 2013.
The first online discussion has been launched last week on “Social protection to protect and promote nutrition” in collaboration with IFPRI, ODI, IPC-UNDP, UNICEF, WFP and the World Bank and is open to everyone interested until the 24th of June 2013. In July the second online on “Nutrition-enhancing food and agriculture systems” will be held. Following in September two more online discussions will be held in parallel, one on “The contribution of the private sector to improve nutrition” and one on “The contribution of civil society to improve nutrition”.
We invite you to participate and to share this message widely with your networks. Interested participants can send their contributions directly to FSN-moderator@fao.org or post online upon registration to the FSN Forum.
13-Jun-2013: The Building a Better Response (BBR) project has launched a series of face-to-face workshops to strengthen NGO capacity on the international humanitarian architecture. These 2-day workshops will offer NGO staff the opportunity to increase their knowledge on key aspects of the humanitarian architecture: the cluster system, humanitarian country leadership, and humanitarian funding mechanisms. For more information about the BBR project, as well as the workshop schedule, please visit: www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/bbr.
07-Jun-2013: Governments, businesses and civil society committed more than $4 billion at a Nutrition for Growth summit on Saturday to help end global malnutrition among the world’s poorest children and also agreed new targets for improving nutrition. The commitments mean that funding on nutrition will effectively double from about $418m to about $900m a year between now and 2020.
The commitments came at a nutrition for growth summit co-hosted by British prime minster David Cameron, Michel Temer, the vice-president of Brazil, and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation. The aim of the summit was to put a hitherto neglected area on the development agenda. A total of 24 governments and 28 business joined science organisations in signing a global nutrition for growth compact. The compact will seek to: ensure at least 500 million pregnant women and children benefit from effective nutrition interventions; prevent at least 20 million children under the age of five from stunted growth; and save at least 1.7m lives by reducing stunting, increasing breastfeeding, and treating severe acute malnutrition. More information: http://feedly.com/k/199xdPH.
6-Jun-2013: Please find below a link to a new WHO publication – “Essential Nutrition Actions: improving maternal, newborn, infant and young child health and nutrition”: http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/essential_nutrition_actions/en/index.html. It was developed by WHO as a background for the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in its 65th meeting on May 2012.
The document presents the interventions currently recommended by WHO, summarizes the rationale and the evidence, and describes the actions required to implement them. The document uses a life-course approach, from pre-conception throughout the first 2 years of life. It also provides an analysis of community-based interventions aimed at improving nutrition and indicates how effective interventions can be delivered in an integrated fashion. The objective of the document is to help Member States and partners in selecting interventions that are appropriate in their situation to improve health and nutrition of mothers and children, and to prevent malnutrition (undernutrition, overweight/obesity, micronutrient deficiencies).
The publication was posted (published) on the WHO website simultaneously with the Lancet Series on Nutrition 2013.
6-Jun-2013: Today, on June 6th, 2013, The Lancet published a Series of papers featuring new data and policy recommendations on global nutrition. The papers are a follow-up to The Lancet’s landmark 2008 Series, which helped put nutrition on the global health and development agenda and identified the 1,000 days of a mother’s pregnancy until her child’s 2nd birthday as the priority window for impact.
Together with the paper authors, The Lancet will launch the Series at a full day symposium at Imperial College in London. Additional launch events will be hosted by local partners in Washington, DC, Ethiopia, India, and several other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Series consists of four papers and a Call to Action commentary from the authors.
- Paper 1 considers the prevalence and consequences of nutritional conditions during the life course from adolescence (for girls) through pregnancy to childhood and discusses the implications for adult health.
- Paper 2 covers the evidence supporting the nutrition-specific interventions and the health impact and cost of increasing their population coverage.
- Paper 3 considers nutrition-sensitive interventions and approaches and their potential to improve nutrition.
- Paper 4 examines the features of an enabling environment that are needed to provide support for nutrition programs, and how they can be favourably influenced.
- The Comment examines what is currently being done, and what should be done nationally and internationally to address nutritional and developmental needs of women and children in low- and middle-income countries.
The Series is now available on-line at: http://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition (free of charge for registered users).
31-May-2013: GNC style guide was uploaded to the website. All backgrouond indormation can be found under GNC Identity Ad Hoc Group heading here.
31-May-2013: Save the Children BSFP guidance note [pdf] and its templates [zip] were shared with GNC. The aim of this guidance note is to compile in one document the different Save the Children field experiences and to provide guidance for each step of the intervention including tools and templates. This does not intent to be exhaustive, prescriptive and it should be refined over time to incorporate new evidence and successful best practices.
27-May-2013: During the 64th World Health Assembly held from 21-26 May 2013, WHO's Member States have endorsed global targets for improving maternal, infant and young child nutrition and are committed to monitoring progress. The targets are vital for identifying priority areas for action and catalysing global change. More information: http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/nutrition_globaltargets2025/en/index.html.
- Global target 1: by 2025, a 40% reduction of the global number of children 23. under five who are stunted.
- Global target 2: by 2025, a 50% reduction of anaemia in women of reproductive age.
- Global target 3: by 2025, a 30% reduction of low birth weight.
- Global target 4: by 2025, no increase in childhood overweight.
- Global target 5: by 2025, increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50%.
- Global target 6: by 2025, reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%.
24-May-2013: We are happy to anounce that two new partners joined GNC in 2013: GOAL and CRED.
24-May-2013: Minutes of the 5th GNC partners call were uploaded to the GNC website. The sixth conference call was held on 23rd og May 2013. The next conference call is shedulled for 18th of June 2013, 14.00 geneva time.
24-May-2013: Minutes of the 5th NCCs conference call were uploaded to the GNC website. The next conference call is shedulled for 30 May 2013, 9.00 Geneva time.
23-May-2013: For attention of all GNC partners and NCCs. Ms Lola Gostelow has been selected to conduct the GNC Governance Assignment. Lola will reflect on the current structure, membership, operational modalities and governance of the GNC and to put forward practical suggestions regarding how the functioning of the GNC could improve and thereby enhance its performance.
The reflection will involve 4 strands of activity:-
1. examining the various papers of the GNC that speak to governance-related matters
2. examining documents that describe the governance arrangements of other clusters - most notably gFSC, H, WASH and Education
3. a small number of interviews - no more than 25 (a number defined by the time constraints for this work), mainly with GNC members, some NCCs. and with 2-3 with key external stakeholders.
4. an online survey to seek inputs from all GNC members.
During the GNC meeting in July Lola will present the findings and preliminary recommendations to partners.
Lola has already started this assignment and will be in touch with all partners to complete the on line survey; with a number of randomly selected partners and with some of the SAG members and TWG & TaskForce co-chairs to take part in interviews.
We will keep you informed of progress. More information [doc].
21-May-2013: Action Against Hunger (ACF International) and the Coverage Monitoring Network are leased to invite you to a unique, two-day Conference titled “What We Know Now: a Decade of Community-based Treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition”. it will be held from 17h to 18th of ctober 2013 in london, UK. The two day conference will bring together technical experts, field practitioners and policy makers to help identify priority areas for research and action. The event will review available evidence and emerging performance data of community-based SAM treatment. More information [pdf]
17-May-2013: "Funding nutrition: a moral imperative, an effective investment". An international conference to fight child malnutrition called by UNICEF ended in Paris with a call to hasten world progress on child nutrition and the funding for it. “The Paris conference produced a very strong consensus on responses to be made. It also marked an important step in expressing the political will to attack this scourge by governments, both in the South and the North,” said Michèle Barzach, the President of French UNICEF National Committee. “That must now be translated into the large-scale implementation of strategies that have proven their effectiveness, and into mobilizing the needed resources.”
UNICEF - http://www.unicef.org/media/media_69224.html
17-May-2013: Issue 45 of Field Exchange is now available to view online: http://www.ennonline.net/pool/files/fex/fx-45-web.pdf.
17-May-2013: Please see links to graduate-level certificate courses (fully online) from Tufts University intended mainly for a practitioner audience.
Humanitarian Assistance: http://www.nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/certificate-programs/evidence-based-humanitarian-assistance-certificate)
Delivery Science: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/academics/certificate-programs/delivery-science
16-May-2013: At the end of 2012 The Child Protection Working Group (Area of Responsibility of the Protection Cluster) has launched “Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action”. Standard 22 covers child protection in nutrition in emergency response. If you would like more information please refer to Child Protection Working Group website: http://cpwg.net/ and a full version of minimum standards: http://cpwg.net/minimum-standards/
16-May-2012: Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) is launching its new programme – Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) - at a series of regional townhall meetings in June and July 2013.
R2HC is a groundbreaking new collaboration between the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Wellcome Trust that will support world class research into public health interventions in humanitarian disasters.
The aim of the programme is to strengthen the evidence base underpinning public health interventions in humanitarian contexts in order to improve health outcomes, enrich humanitarian practice, and facilitate closer collaboration between researchers and practitioners.
The first R2HC Call for Proposals will be officially opened in early June and launched through a series of townhall meetings around the world:
London, UK – 5th June
New York, USA – 12th June
Delhi, India – week commencing 8th July (date to be confirmed)
Nairobi, Kenya – 18th July
These events will be most relevant for professionals in the public health research and humanitarian fields who may be interested in applying for research programme funding or seeking to build partnerships between researchers and practitioners.
Please see the R2HC launch flyer [pdf] with more information on the programme and hyperlinks to register interest in attending one of the townhall events.
13-May-2013: An inter-agency Survey Manager-level SMART training, organised by ACF-Canada and ACF-Spain, will take place in Madrid, Spain on June 17th-21st, 2013. This training is intended for European-based headquarter staff involved in nutrition and mortality surveys.
The people who will benefit most from this workshop are:
• People from organisations / institutions directly responsible for the planning, supervision and/or data analysis of nutritional surveys.
• People from organisations / institutions with experience in conducting a nutritional survey, but who need to improve their capabilities by using the SMART methodology.
• People with a basic understanding of malnutrition and statistical principles.
As a result of this highest level of SMART training for survey designers and managers, you will gain knowledge in how to define survey objectives, determine sample size & sampling strategy, recruit and train survey teams, supervise field teams, assess data quality, interpret results, and, finally, formulate recommendations and policy measures.
In order to provide a positive learning environment for all of the participants, a mandatory pre-selection questionnaire has been devised which will be reviewed by the facilitators of the SMART training. It is important to note that filling out this form does not guarantee your place in the training, as the number of spots is limited. Consequently, please make sure you have filled this form as soon as possible and no later than Monday, May 20th, 2013 by accessing the link below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SMART_MADRID_2013. You will be informed by email if you are selected to attend.
08-May-2012: HelpAge released new guidelines “Nutrition interventions for older people in emergencies” which were uploaded to the GNC webste here. It is meant to encourage humanitarian workers to assess and treat malnutrition in older people. It also highlights older people’s vulnerability to malnutrition in emergencies. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact Pascal Fritsh at pfritsch@helpage.org.
02-May-2013: Report on mortality among populations of southern and central Somalia affected by severe food insecurity and famine during 2010-2012 (press-release [pdf] and full report [pdf]) was uploaded to the website.
30-Apr-2013: "The management of acute malnutrition at scale: A review of donor and government financing arrangements" was uploaded to the website. This review considers the enabling and constraining aspects of humanitarian, transition and development financing, the contexts and rationale in which severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) are jointly addressed in CMAM programming; the role of key United Nations (UN) agencies in enabling programme integration and coordination; individual donor policies and strategies for supporting CMAM in emergency, transition and development contexts; and opportunities for achieving greater impact of efforts to manage acute malnutrition.
29-Apr-2013: World Food Programme, in partnership with Valid international, is currently undertaking a Global review of MAM programmes addressing both treatment and prevention of moderate acute malnutrition
29-Apr-2013: The fifth GNC partners conference call was held. Minutes of the call will be uploaded to the website.
29-Apr-2013: Minutes of the second SAG meeting were uploaded to the website.
28-Apr-2013: The European Union steps up its efforts to fight against world hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This is the goal of a new policy, just adopted by the European Commission, which aims to improve the nutrition of mothers and children in order to reduce mortality and diseases, as well as the impediments to growth and development caused by undernutrition.
Nutrition is a strategic priority of the European Commission. In March 2013, two essential documents, setting the policy of the European Commission for the coming years have been adopted:
- The European Union Communication on 'Enhancing Maternal and Children nutrition in external assistance' a joint DEVCO and ECHO policy
- The European Commission Staff Working Document on 'Addressing undernutrition in emergencies' setting the strategic priorities for DG ECHO in the nutrition sector.
Both documents acknowledge the needs to adopt a multisector approach to address undernutrition, to scale-up nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions by supporting evidence-based approaches and programmes. The documents are available on the new ECHO webpage dedicated to Nutrition: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/policies/nutrition_en.htm
28-Apr-2013: Minutes of the fourth GNC partners meeting were uploaded to the website.
15-Apr-2013: Introducing the new Household Economy Approach & Cost of the Diet website! This exciting new web resource hosts over 200 Household Economy Approach (HEA) and 18 Cost of the Diet (CoD) reports produced by numerous organisations since 2005. These reports provide much needed information on aspects of food security, livelihoods and nutrition in over 30 countries that are not publicly available. Vital information such as this should be easily accessible to inform improved decision-making for policy and programmes. It is the most up-to-date and comprehensive global resource for these innovative tools. The aim of this website is to bring HEA and CoD practitioners together by sharing reports, guidance, experience, and training opportunities. For more information about these tools, please see below. This website has been developed by Save the Children with support from the Food Economy Group (FEG) and with funding from ECHO. The intention is that this will be a low maintenance website that will be updated largely by you, the practitioner. We hope that you will make use of this valuable resource and share your own HEA and CoD reports, assessments and training opportunities via the website.
Visit www.heawebsite.org and create a log-in and upload reports, trainings and assessment dates or post a query on the CoD forum.
Features:
• Interactive map that hosts over 200 HEA and 18 CoD reports including four reports containing integrated analysis of HEA and CoD information to inform policy and programming (from Bangladesh, DRC, Nigeria and Niger)
• 4 new CoD baseline reports (from Turkana, Burkina Faso and Bangladesh) and 3 new HEA baseline profiles (from Turkana and Bangladesh) resulting from an ECHO funded project aimed at building capacity on integrated food security and nutrition analysis
• Forums, FAQs and guidelines, including a French translation of the HEA Practitioner’s Guide (coming soon)
• Training & assessments calendar where you can find and post upcoming opportunities to expand the number of people trained in the HEA and CoD methods
10-April-2013: Minutes of the first GNC SAG conference call and a final SAG TOR endorsed by SAG members were posted on the website.
09-Apr-2013: A blog discussion, written by Rob Bailey (Chatham House) and Andrew Seal (UCL, GNC partner), has been posted by PloS Med. It considers the context to the Somalia famine in 2011 and the reasons for the inadequate humanitarian response. There are also plans to follow this up with a longer article that will explore the issues in more depth.
04-Apr-2013: The training section has undergone a major revision with eight pages providing 22 learning materials (training packages and online trainings). The training section now consists of the following pages:
- On the first page you will find training packages which cover more than one topic in addressing Nutrition in Emergencies.
- Harmonized Training Package (HTP) for Nutrition in Emergencies and complementary presentations. Note: the HTP now includes additional module 23 on nutrition of older people in emergencies.
- E-learning page with available online learning opportunities (with or without a certificate of competition) for Nutrition in Emergencies programming.
- Page dedicated to training materials on cluster approach awareness and coordination.
- CMAM-specific training materials.
- IYCF & IYCF-E training materials.
- Training materials in assessments.
- Training materials for addressing micronutrient deficiencies.
- Training materials addressing cross-cutting issues page is under development (will be included once materials become available, see also e-learning).
04-Apr-2013: A new SPHERE e-learning course has been launched by SPHERE project. The course is open to everyone and is free of charge. The full course takes about six hours to complete and at the end you will be given a certificate of completion. For the time being, the course is available in English only. Arabic, French and Spanish versions are expected in early April.
28-Mar-2013: GNC started recruitment procedures for Rapid Response Team members (Nutrition Cluster Coordinators and Information Management Officers). The recruitment is expected to be finished within one month. Please follow our vacancies page regularly. You may also wish to request more information from gnc@unicef.org.
28-Mar-2013: The information sharing call was conducted with GNC partners on Syria crisis.
25-Mar-2013: Based on the feedback from stakeholders, OCHA revised MIRA guidance. A feedback is requested by 3rd of April from nutrition stakeholders to aziolkovska@unicef.org.
25-Mar-2013: The report from the consultation "Mid Upper Arm Circumference and Weight-for-Height Z-score as indicators of severe acute malnutrition: a consultation of operational agencies and academic specialists to understand the evidence, identify knowledge gaps and to inform operational guidance" held in December 2012 was uploaded to the website. If you have any queries regarding this consultation or would like to submit a feedback, please contact Marie McGrath from ENN directly: marie@ennonline.net
21-Mar-2013: GNC partners conference call was held. Minutes of the call will be uploaded to the website.
21-Mar-2013: Minutes of the fourth NCCs' conference call, held on 28th of February, were uploaded to the website.
20-Mar-2013: Report of the results of the evaluation of a Blanket Supplementary Feeding Program (BSFP) implemented in the Turkana and Wajir Counties of northern Kenya between August 2011 and March 2012 was uploaded to the website.
20-Mar-2013: Minutes of the GNC partners and Mali Nutrition Cluster conference call were uploaded to the website.
19-Mar-2013: Minutes of the face-to-face meeting of GNC partners held from 24-25 January 2013 were uploaded to the website and are available here.
13-Mar-2013: The first Interim Strategic Advisory Group conference call took place on 13th of May 2013. Six SAG members were present during the call. Minutes of the call will be uploaded to the website.
07-Mar-2013: A final version of the Nutrition Cluster Handbook has been uploaded to the GNC website. Printing of the handbook is in process.
07-Mar-2013: An additional HTP Module 23 on "Nutrition of older people in emergencies" has been finilised and is available to download from the GNC website.
06-Mar-2013: For the attention of all GNC partners! Through funding from the GNC, International Medical Corps is facilitating a training for GNC partners in Cluster Coordination and the Humanitarian Approach - April 30, May 1, and May 2, 2013, in Geneva (more...)
26-Feb-2013: Members of the GNC Interim Strategic Advisory grooup has been identified (more...)
15-Feb-2013: The conference call between GNC partners and Mali Nutrition Cluster was held.
14-Feb-2013: Links and information on a new manual produced by HelpAge International were addedd. This manual produced with funding from the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO) provides guidance for the implementation of three key action points to formulate an initial emergency needs assessment that includes older people.
- Collect sex and age-disaggregated data (SADD) of the population in emergency-affected areas from national population data sources.
- Make initial assessments ageing sensitive by using methods for estimating SADD in contexts where such data has not been collected during the preparedness phase. Take steps to ensure an age-sensitive approach to community-based primary data collection.
- Conduct an ageing sensitive analysis of the assessment data to provide a clear picture of the needs of older people and other vulnerable groups in the crisis.
The aim of this guidance is therefore to ensure that the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of older people in emergencies are fully taken into account as part of a thorough gender and age analysis of humanitarian needs.
It can be utilised whether agencies are engaged in coordinated assessments through the Multi-cluster Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) methodology or whether they carry out individual assessments applying any of the different existing methodologies within their organisations.
11-Feb-2013: GNC has created a members-only group/forum for Cluster/Sector Coordinators, Information Managers and Nutrition Specialists at global, national and sub-national levels who work in Nutrition in Emergencies. Based on the requests from the field, the group/forum was created with the following objectives:
- to create a forum for discussions and information sharing between Country Clusters;
- to strengthen capacity building of national and sub-national clusters by providing up-to-date information on issues related to nutrition in emergencies and coordination;
- to ensure linkages between global and national as well as national and sub-national clusters;
- to share updates from the Global Nutrition Cluster with national and sub-national clusters (I will post regular updates, even those which will not be communicated through mailing lists).
It is hosted on linkedin.com (discussions visible only to invited members). In order to join the group, please send a message to Anna Ziolkovska (aziolkovska@unicef.org) or directly on linkedin.com.
06-Feb-2013: Information on GNC Interim Strategic Advisory Group has been added.
30-Jan-2013: "MAM decision tool" has been translated into French and is available here
29-Jan-2013: The final (in terms of content, not design) version of GNC Handbook is now available at the GNC website
24 to 25-Jan-2013: GNC face-to-face meeting, Geneva, Switzerland. Presentations are available here. Meeting report will be uploaded soon.
23-Jan-2013: The GNC website has been updated. It now allows users to access more detailed, up to date information on all aspects of the nutrition clusters' work in emergencies. Some of the main updates are highlighted below:
Please visit our website on a regular basis as it is regularly updated. If you think that we missed some important information, documents, guidance, etc. as well as if you have any suggestions on a website improvement, please do not hesitate to contact us (aziolkovska@unicef.org) as soon as possible.
