Democratic Republic of Congo Nutrition Emergency Pool Model

The fight against malnutrition and hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a challenge that Action Against Hunger has worked to address for close to ten years. The Action Against Hunger’s DRC nutrition emergency pool is the mission’s flagship and longest-running program. The pool works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and its division, PRONANUT, to confirm nutrition crisis alerts through rapidly deployed SMART surveys and respond to confirmed crisis through emergency intervention teams. The pool’s response capacity covers the entire country, over 2,345 million square miles and one of the continent’s largest. The teams’ emergency activities are integrated within MoH structures, contributing to streamline integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) policy and reinforce the health system’s capacity for nutrition crisis response.

The Action Against Hunger’s DRC nutrition emergency pool has evolved over the years, and some key findings and lessons learned are presented in the following case study.