VEHA
Guidance
Guidance
Virtual Environmental and Humanitarian Adviser Tool – (VEHA Tool) is a tool
to easily integrate environmental considerations in humanitarian response. Field Implementation guidances are useful for the design and execution of humanitarian activities in the field.
Hunger and malnutrition are rampant among refugees, displaced populations, and people living in humanitarian emergencies. Many of them suffer from one or more of the multiple forms of malnutrition. This is often connected to over use of, damage to or conflict over natural resources, and can also force people into unsustainable use of natural resources as they compete for food, nutrition, and cooking fuels.
Hospitals and other nutritional treatment centers have an impact on the environment and the environment impacts them. People accessing services are impacted by the environment, with environmental changes driving malnutrition.
Malnutrition is also increasingly being affected by the impacts of climate change – changing temperatures, temperature extremes, storms, rainfall patterns, and crop pest and disease spread.
Identify the most at-risk members of households.
Air pollution
Soil pollution
Water pollution
Climate change
Natural resource depletion
Cultural acceptance
Impact on wellbeing / mental health
Increased intensity of storms/hurricanes
Increased drought/flood
The following activities can reduce the environmental impact of inpatient treatment of SAM:
In South Sudan, Humanitarian agencies provided nutritional supplement feeding and found that over time waste was accumulating on land and in watercourses, causing pollution. Agencies responded by setting up feeding centers and removing packaging prior to distribution where possible; providing safe comfortable feeding areas and encouraging their use, followed by encouragement to return all waste packaging prior to leaving the feeding center.
The environmental impact of inpatient SAM treatment has been assessed and significantly reduced.
Prevention of environmental damage
Time and budget to develop environmentally sustainable procurement plans and reduce the environmental footprint of inpatient treatment.