By: Michele Goergen
We have recently expanded our scope on how we can support nutrition in emergencies. We can now provide support to individual agencies including national and International organizations as well as health ministries. All costs for this support are covered by the Tech RRT grant, thanks to USAID/OFDA.
What does this mean if you work for an agency or health ministry? We can support capacity development for your teams by providing trainings, conducting evaluations of your nutrition prorams and working with your teams to improve program quality and reach. We can help you integrate nutrition into your existing portofolio or include nutrition indicators in assessments. We can also train other sectors such as WASH or Food Security program teams on nutrition topics such as infant and young child feeding. There are many possibilities, and our support can be adapted to each country’s and organization’s specific needs, so don’t hesitate to contact us and we can work together to determine the type of support we can provide.
Our team includes specialists in CMAM, IYCF-E, Assessment and Social Behavior Change (SBC). Below are the areas of technical expertise and related activities. These activities are examples of how the Tech RRT Advisers can support your work in nutrition emergencies.
Infant and young child feeding in emergencies (IYCF-E)
- Lead IYCF-E assessments or include questions on IYCF-E into broader assessments
- Assess capacity building needs of staff members on IYCF/IYCF-E
- Facilitate trainings, Training of Trainers (TOTs) or orientation sessions
- Integrate IYCF-E into current, new, or scaled up nutrition activities: CMAM, micronutrients
- Monitor and do supportive supervision visits of IYCF-E activities to improve quality, including:
- Supervison of the quality of Breastfeeding assessments, re-lactation, BMS programming, Behavior Change Communication such as one to one counselling
- Provide recommendations or corrective actions to improve quality programming
- Advise on integration of IYCF/IYCF-E with other sectors’ programs, i.e. WASH, Food Security and Livelihoods, Child Protection, Health
- Provide orientation or training on the Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (BMS), including advice on appropriate use or disposal of confiscated BMS
- Lead the development of proposals and budgets for IYCF-E
- Support to develop an IYCF-E strategy or response plan for the organization
Surveys and Assessment
- Lead, plan and conduct nutrition surveys and assessments:
- Identify the type of assessment to undertake according to needs.
- Design and prepare for the assessment, including: initial planning, select tools and methods, sampling, write survey guidelines, plan survey timeline, working days, budget and plan logistics including any special tools and equipment needed.
- Collect background and demographic information before the assessment/survey.
- Oversee the assessment, including monitoring and supervision of data collection and data entry
- Draft the survey report and support finalisation of the report
- Facilitate discussions around recommendations from the findings
- Assess capacity building needs of staff members on nutrition assessments and methodologies
- Facilitate trainings, Training of Trainers (TOTs) or orientation sessions to improve weaknesses identified
- Lead the development of proposals and budgets to seek funding for assessments
Community based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM)
- Lead assessments for CMAM – to decide if necessary to start up or scale up programs
- Assess CMAM capacity building needs of staff members on CMAM, or on a specific component of CMAM (i.e. inpatient treatment, OTP, community referrals/follow up, etc.)
- Facilitate trainings, Training of Trainers (TOTs) or orientation sessions
- Support to develop integrated messages and behaviors to focus on that can be integrated into CMAM programs.
- Monitor and do supportive supervision visits of CMAM activities to provide recommendations or corrective actions to improve program quality
- Support to program managers for improved monitoring and supervision of CMAM programs
- Lead the development of proposals and budgets for CMAM programs
Social Behavior change (SBC)
- Lead SBC assessments, such as Barrier analysis, to better understand the communities’ current practices for specific nutrition, sanitation and hygiene behaviors
- Assess capacity building needs of staff members on SBC
- Facilitate trainings, Training of Trainers (TOTs) or orientation sessions
- Work with the organization’s teams to develop and integrate activities for SBC into programs
- Monitor and do supportive supervision visits of SBC activities and provide recommendations or corrective actions to improve program quality
- Design or adapt M&E tools and indicators for SBC programs
- Advise on integration of SBC with other sectors’ programs, i.e. WASH, Food Security and Livelihoods, Child Protection, Health
- Lead the development of proposals and budgets for SBC activities in nutrition and WASH responses
- Support to design of an SBC strategy or response plan for the organization
Advisors can be deployed to work with the nutrition sector/cluster or to individual agencies. Anyone can request an advisor and there is no cost to the hosting agency. Once you have determined the type of support you would like to receive, fill out our online request form here or email TechRRT@internationalmedicalcorps.org for more information.