Dear All

Towards a practical guide: A scoping review of nutrition programming, policy, and evidence for school-age children and adolescents in humanitarian contexts | ENN

Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) and UNICEF has today released a new report that explores current recommendations to improve nutrition for school-age children and adolescents  in humanitarian contexts. Based on a review of current policy and evidence, of which there is little, the report outlines a minimum package of interventions tailored to meet the unique nutrition challenges faced by school-age children and adolescents in crises. 

The report also exemplifies six cases studies from different geographical and humanitarian contexts across the globe ensuring a comprehensive illustration of a variety of different interventional responses for school-age children and adolescents – amongst them Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Venezuelan migrants in Panama and Mexico, internally displaced people (IDPs) in Cameroon, besieged school-age children and adolescents in Gaza, and conflict-affected areas of Ukraine.

The report found that the lack of data, guidance, assessment tools, funding, specifically-designed products, and youth-voices are some of the key barriers as to why nutrition is not being supported for this age group in emergencies at present. 

This age group is often overlooked in global nutrition efforts, despite their critical growth and development needs, especially in emergencies and the recommendations in this report represent a vital step toward filling the gap in adolescent nutrition response in humanitarian settings. 

ENN urges governments, NGOs, and humanitarian actors to prioritise a basic package of nutritional support for this age group during emergencies, and to work together to generate better evidence and policy in the near future.  

Please do share the report with anyone potentially interested, 

Many thanks 

Natasha 

Natasha Lelijveld
Senior Technical Associate 
Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sign up to join the Global Adolescent Nutrition Network (GANN) here