In any humanitarian situation it poses a great threat to nutrition. All other sectoral damages take a toll on the delivery of health and nutrition services that expose children to the risk of acute malnutrition/mortality. To build a nutrition sensitive intervention it requires a proper assessment. In the Nepal earthquake situation a Multi Sectoral Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) was triggered 72 hours after the disaster. MIRA tools are focused on food security more than nutrition and do not essentially justify the need for blanket feeding program or supplementary feeding program. What type of assessment could be proposed for nutrition and at what interval (likewise, immediately after i.e. 72 hours and after six weeks) in any emergency situation like earthquake?
One option is to refer to the local health / nutritional demographics & data tracked by government//schools to create a snapshot of the community's baseline . Maintaining your "community status" quarterly printout in a notebook will give you a starting point on day of emergency. Age, health status and food security / accessibility baselines could be achieved using the data leading up to the emergency. Add to each area monitored once you're collecting new information. The macro picture is food security / accessibility while the micro reflects parameters in which the preferred reassessment frequency differs. Adding Quality Assurance to confirm systems supporting change in clinical status/food delivery would be found with administrative goals. Goal is that the reassessment trends are accurate to the treatments / health parameters being measured. Bioethics questions may be created with the addition of nutrition surveys so housing administration with health/medical services may assist.
Answered:
7 years agoMIRA was used in Pakistan after the floods and nutrition questions were included in consultation with the group. They also included MUAC , You may take it up with the lead agency and suggest questions relevant to the situation.
Best, Rita
Answered:
7 years ago