Name of Sector: Nutrition in Emergencies

Dates of Deployment: 23 – 27 September 2019

Reason for request:

In Mexico, in recent emergencies, the reaction of the media and society in general was not consistent with international recommendations on nutrition in disaster contexts. Since emergencies can hit anywhere and at any time, pre-disaster preparedness is paramount. Local authorities should consider previous experiences and the normative principles that govern during emergencies to address the requirements, distribution of donations and humanitarian aid.

Likewise, the training of health personnel linked to the response to emergencies is one of the potential interventions to maintain or improve feeding / nutrition practices in emergencies and is a fundamental piece for an adequate public health response.

In response to the aforementioned, in November 2018, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the SLAN held a workshop in the framework of the XVIII Congress of the Latin American Nutrition Society, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, whose objective was to train and sensitize professionals linked to response activities in situations of humanitarian emergency and disasters in the field of nutrition and food security in the region, with the aim of improving the response capacity and coordination of countries to protect and support proper nutrition practices in infants and young children during emergency situations. This course will last 5 intensive days during the summer and will be designed and taught by qualified professionals (national and international), which intends to replicate and expand the experience of the Workshop developed during the SLAN, this time in a more extensive format than cover more content and expose nutrition in emergencies as a broader and more comprehensive topic. It is worth mentioning that, the summer course will resume the lessons learned from the SLAN Workshop, in order to improve the design, development and expected results.

The Tech RRT directly supported preparation of the training.

Key Responsibilities:

  1. Support the Coordination Team to develop the course agenda including proposing the topics to be addressed, answering any queries raised by the College of Nutrition Teachers of the Mexico National Institute of Public Health, and maintaining constant communication until the final agenda of the course is formed;
  2. Coordinate closely with Coordination Team to propose, define and prepare the necessary material for the theoretical and practical sessions. For example, selection of bibliography, development of PowerPoint presentations, selection of videos and selection of activities.

Key achievements:

  1. Delivery of the training
  2. Training report
  3. Training materials