New edition of 'Research for Nutrition', the meeting point for leading experts on child malnutrition

The relevance of convenings such as this one is even greater at a time when the growing number of crises, the demand for assistance and the increase in the number of people in need require not only more humanitarian aid, but also new approaches and developments aimed at achieving greater efficiency, better coverage and greater transformative capacity. On the other hand, the persistence of acute malnutrition and its impact on child mortality also calls for new solutions and ways of working to accelerate prevention, early detection and treatment efforts to tackle child wasting more effectively. 
 

Thus, innovation and research are a differential value in the search for efficiency and simplification of our humanitarian interventions to make them more sustainable and scalable. Operational research is a continuous process of generating and evolving our knowledge and is a key element in the work of Action Against Hunger, to understand what works and what doesn't in our work. 

CLIMATE CRISES, SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES AND INEQUALITIES IN NUTRITION SECURITY UNDER DEBATE.

On this occasion, #R4NUT focused on analysing the impact of climate crises, socio-political changes and socio-economic inequalities on nutrition security. For two days, the nearly 200 participants had the opportunity to listen to and share the experiences of professionals from ACF's different locations, as well as from Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Vietnam. Organisations such as Concern Worldwide, Doctors of the World, Save the Children, the US National Public Health Agency (CDC), the OECD, WHO and Unicef, and universities such as Adelaide, Tufs, Paris Cité Inserm and Kinshasa, shared their knowledge and generated a constant dialogue with the public about their findings and experiences.
 

ACF Spain participated in the panel on new technologies for nutrition, with a presentation on the latest advances and developments around the SAM Photo Diagnosis application, by Laura Medialdea, principal investigator of the Programme. This revolutionary way of identifying severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is in the validation and adaptation phase of the algorithm with active studies in Senegal and Guatemala, and about to start in India.  

 In addition, during the event, other research in which ACF Spain has participated or received support was presented, such as the study on the cost analysis of severe acute malnutrition with complications in patients aged 6 to 59 months hospitalised in health centres in Senegal; the project for an integrated digital diagnosis AleDia (Alliance for e-diagnosis) and the multi-country prospective cohort study on risk factors for relapse among children recovered from severe acute malnutrition.

FIRST DAY

The first day's sessions focused on the impact of climate change and inequalities on malnutrition, as well as sharing results on different types of SAM treatment, and on strengthening community-based approaches.
 

Antonio Vargas, head of ACF Spain's Nutrition and Health department, said of the conference that "the opportunity to share information and knowledge among those involved in the fight against malnutrition is much needed. Specifically, on the first day, Vargas highlights the presentation by the ACF South Sudan team of the study Effectiveness of gender-based violence risk mitigation interventions in nutrition services and points out that "this study focuses on the impact of gender-based violence in nutrition programmes. One of the reflections of this work is the need to always take into account the risk to which we expose programme participants with certain interventions. This risk must be reduced and mitigated in the identification and formulation of project actions/solutions. To do this, it is essential to design the project based on the needs and assessments of the people involved, to always try to bring the service closer to reduce movements and to have a team dedicated to explaining the actions in the community and raising awareness of the problem".

From this first day, Amador Gómez, Director of Research and Innovation of ACF Spain highlights the presentation Community recommendations in the LINK-NCA reports, methodology on the causal analysis of malnutrition, by ACF France, in which it was exposed how the scaling up of the Link-NCA methodology is being translated into a dynamic database to deepen the causes of malnutrition in different contexts and the mechanisms that lead to the different types of child malnutrition (acute, chronic, anaemia...).
Also from this first day, Gómez highlights the conclusions of the presentation Cost analysis of hospital treatment of SAM with complications in the north of Senegal. According to Gómez, "the high cost of treating cases of acute malnutrition with complications requires further progress in three directions: 1) simplification of treatment protocols to make them shorter, simpler and more effective; 2) the importance of early diagnosis at community level and the provision of new tools for simple, rapid and reliable diagnosis; and 3) the need to strengthen interventions at community level, with door-to-door treatment approaches to ensure access to treatment for acute malnutrition as soon as it is identified".

SECOND DAY

On the second and last day, the panels focused on the management and prevention of malnutrition through local food resources, multisectoral strategies to tackle malnutrition, and the risk of suffering from metabolic and non-communicable diseases associated with child malnutrition, among other aspects.
 

Pilar Charle-Cuéllar, coordinator of the iCCM+ Project of ACF Spain, highlighted the presentation by Alison Daniel, from the WHO on the WHO Guidelines for the prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition. Charle-Cuéllar comments: "Regarding this presentation, I would like to share some points: 1) Action Against Hunger has contributed with its work and research to have a new recommendation that includes the treatment of acute malnutrition with community health workers; 2) the platform was presented that shows how from this moment on the revision of the guideline will be a living and active process in which new evidence can be continuously contributed; 3) it is necessary to move to action, and that the different humanitarian organisations in collaboration with the Ministries of Health, implement and adapt in each context the different recommendations." 

All information about the presentations and posters shared can be found at ACF | Research for nutrition conference