Childhood wasting is an increasing global public health problem and studies have shown that emergency rates of global acute malnutrition persist in the longer-term in some dryland contexts—even in the absence of an obvious emergency and despite ongoing packages of essential nutrition interventions.
FAO and Tufts University are co-hosting this technical series to review the basic drivers of malnutrition in Africa’s drylands and discuss an adapted conceptual framework for addressing acute malnutrition in Africa’s drylands.
Panel 1: Basic drivers of acute malnutrition: environment and seasonality
Objective: To highlight and promote understanding of the seasonal and inter annual variability in climate, environment and ecology of drylands and implications for the underlying drivers of acute malnutrition, the seasonality of wasting and disease and on international action.
October 22 at 8:30AM EDT, 2:30PM CEST, 3:30PM EAT
Register here for panel 1.
Panel 2: Basic drivers of acute malnutrition: systems and institutions
Objective: Review the role and influence of systems and institutions (formal and informal, e.g. governance, social norms and expectations etc.) on livelihoods and on the underlying drivers of wasting, in order to better understand how these systems can potentially buffer shocks and sustainably address acute malnutrition.
October 29 at 9:30AM EDT, 2:30PM CET, 4:30PM EAT
Register here for panel 2.
Panel 3: Basic drivers of acute malnutrition: dryland livelihood systems, vulnerability, resilience and shocks
Objective: Review the unique characteristics of livelihood systems adapted to Africa’s drylands and their implications for nutrition. Explore how worsening conditions linked to protracted conflict, climate and other shocks have undermined livelihood resilience and in turn contributed to acute malnutrition.
November 5 at 8:30AM EST, 2:30PM CET, 4:30PM EAT
Register here for panel 3.
Panel 4: Next steps: how drivers of persistent malnutrition shape the response
Objectives: To present the Global Action Plan (GAP) on Child Wasting and stress the urgency of developing radically improved approaches for addressing persistent acute malnutrition in Africa’s drylands, shaped by a new understanding of the basic more systemic drivers of malnutrition. This panel will demonstrate the complementarities and linkages between stakeholder responses, working across systems and disciplines and connecting institutions from the community level upwards in order to meet the nutritional needs of women and children.
November 12 at 8:30AM EST, 2:30PM CET, 4:30PM EAT
Register here for panel 4.
Visit the series website for background on the series, welcome videos, details about each panel, and opportunities to get involved.
We encourage you to attend all of the events in the series. You must register for each event separately. The events will be in English with simultaneous translation to French.