Training/building the capacity of health and community personnel addressing nutrition

VEHA - Field Implementation Guidance

Welcome

Nutrition

Behaviour Change

Nutrition training

Training/building the capacity of health and community personnel addressing nutrition

Context

Overview

Environmental factors causing/contributing to the needs and affecting the humanitarian activity

Training specialists in the environmental impacts of nutrition programs and the environmental drivers of malnutrition is key to both reducing waste and pollution and to helping communities build resilience against future malnutrition.

Implications

Gender, age, disability and HIV/AIDS implications

Capacity-building should be provided as locally as possible so it remains local and it is culturally appropriate so more likely to be accepted and used. The needs of the most vulnerable people should be clearly addressed in training/capacity building.

Impacts

Environmental Impact Categories

Air pollution
Soil pollution
Water pollution
Deforestation
Desertification

Eutrophication
Climate change
Loss of biodiversity and ecosystems
Natural resource depletion
Soil erosion
Cultural acceptance
Impact on wellbeing / mental health

Summary of Impacts

Summary of Potential environmental impacts

Nutrition projects can have negative impacts on the environment:

Potentially increased vulnerability to environmental hazards
Diminished provisioning capacity of local ecosystems
Public health risks from pollution from waste
Unsustainable nutrition activities, exacerbating existing or creating new environmental impacts

Loss of natural resources and biodiversity impeding recovery and diminishing community resilience
Deforestation, and water and soil degradation.
Environmental drivers of malnutrition include floods, drought, over intensive farming and land clearance, pollution, disease, climate change, and conflict over natural resources; as well as lack of effective sanitation, clean water, and good practice hygiene.

Impact detail

Detailed potential environmental impact information

Poorly planned nutrition projects can have negative impacts on the environment including potentially increased vulnerability to environmental hazards, through allowing the root causes to continue or grow; diminished provisioning capacity of local ecosystems through solid waste pollution or leaving unsustainable natural resource consumption unaddressed; public health risks from pollution from dumped solid waste; unsustainable nutrition activities, exacerbating existing or creating new environmental impacts; loss natural resources and biodiversity impeding recovery and diminishing community resilience; deforestation, and water and soil degradation.
Environmental impacts undermine the short- and long-term effectiveness and sustainability of Nutrition programming outcomes and can exacerbate existing or introduce new environmental challenges. This can also lead to a loss of livelihoods and biodiversity, impede future recovery efforts as well as diminish community resilience.

There are environmental drivers that contribute to malnutrition. These include floods, drought, over-intensive farming, land clearance, pollution, disease, climate change, and conflict over natural resources. Malnutrition is also often exacerbated, or sometimes caused by lack of effective sanitation, lack of access to good quality clean water, and poor hygiene practices, all of which result in disease spread and diarrhoea, worms, or other water-borne disease-related sickness.

Guidance

Summary

Summary of environmental activities

Train in understanding and achieving good nutrition and root causes of malnutrition and their environmental drivers:
Understanding different fuel types, stove types, cooking methods, and their environmental impacts; the health benefits of different foods; food preparation techniques; composting and recycling of waste food and packaging.
Transport, packaging, locally sourcing foods; re-usable versus disposable utensils; central versus dispersed distribution; cooked meals versus dry goods; Cash and voucher programmes versus food distribution.

Nutritional requirements for different age groups and local / market sources. Training in growing nutritious and diverse food, food preparation, cooking, and cultural acceptance.
Training on increasing local water resources, improving soil quality; stopping harmful land clearance practices; reducing solid waste pollution; reducing disease spread; adapting to climate change impacts.
Training in effective sanitation, accessing clean water; improving hygiene practices, and identifying and addressing sickness.

Detail

Detailed guidance for implementing suggested environmental activities

Nutrition workers, including volunteers, should be trained in understanding and achieving good nutrition, and also in supporting communities as they recover in understanding and addressing the root causes of malnutrition. This should include understanding and addressing environmental drivers of malnutrition.
Training should include understanding different fuel types, stove types, cooking methods, and their environmental impacts; the health benefits of different foods; food preparation techniques; composting and recycling of waste food and packaging.

Training should also include transport, packaging, locally sourcing foods; re-usable versus disposable utensils; central versus dispersed distribution; cooked meals versus dry goods; Cash and voucher programmes versus food distribution.
Training should include understanding nutritional requirements for different age groups and sources from locally produced food and from markets. Provide support in growing nutritious and diverse food, and in food preparation, cooking, and cultural acceptance.
Training on addressing environmental drivers of malnutrition should also include assessing and where appropriate increasing local water retention, infiltration, groundwater recharge, and water storage to increase resilience against drought; training in flood prevention and in more sustainable farming techniques; training in stopping harmful land clearance practices, reducing solid waste pollution, reducing disease spread, and adapting climate change impacts. Training should also be provided in effective sanitation, the importance of drinking good quality clean water, and identifying and changing any poor hygiene practices, all of which if not done well can result in disease spread and diarrhoea, worms, or other water-borne disease-related sicknesses.

Lessons Learnt

Lessons from past experiences

An INGO working with communities on nutritional diversity in several countries identified traditional crop varieties that improved nutrition and were accepted by local communities. However, monitoring demonstrated no change in people’s diets. Further investigation demonstrated that farmers were being compelled to buy and plant terminator crops. The INGO campaigned for laws to be changed in these countries. In collaboration with other agencies, this has been successful.

Activity Measurement

Environmental indicators/monitoring examples

The number of workers, including volunteers, trained / capacity built on nutrition requirements and sources, and addressing the underlying drivers of malnutrition, including environmental drivers.

Priority

Activity Status

High

Main Focus

Focus of suggested activities

Prevention of environmental damage
Mitigation of environmental damage

Implications

Resource implications (physical assets, time, effort)

Time and budget to develop and deliver appropriate contextualized training courses/capacity building including on nutrition, behaviours, and underlying drivers of malnutrition.