Field Exchange - Issue 16

Failure to learn lessons from past experience is a recurring theme in this issue of Field Exchange. Alain Mourey, the long-serving headquarters nutritionist from ICRC, laments the continued practice of implementing emergency supplementary feeding programmes in the absence of adequate general rations. Alain describes his recent experience in Burundi where agencies rushed headlong into implementing emergency SFPs when what was really needed was a good basic ration for the affected population. One reason offered by Alain to explain what happened in Burundi was the over-specialisation of agencies such that no one was responsible for taking an overview of the situation and co-ordinating ALL necessary food security activities. Predictably, the nutritional status of the children at the feeding centres did not improve (and in many cases started to decline sharply). This was simply because there was insufficient food at home. Either the take away supplementary ration was shared by the whole family or those entitled to a meal at the centre (on-site feeding) did not receive enough food at home. The rate of re-admission also increased sharply, the centres became over-crowded and the food supply could not keep pace with the influx. Frustration amongst feeding centre staff was high and the ‘beneficiaries’ became quite desperate.