VEHA

VEHA

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.

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VEHA - Field Implementation Guidance

Welcome
Nutrition
Behaviour Change
Nutrition training
Training targeted population

Training targeted population

Context

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

Without awareness of good nutrition, people may resort to unhealthy food practices and increase their disease burden. This will slow down crisis recovery and is likely to create additional environmental impacts.

Implications
Gender, age, disability and HIV/AIDS implications
  • Training should be targeted at women in terms of accessing appropriate nutrition, but also targeted at men whose activities impact underlying drivers of nutrition such as land clearance, agriculture, mining, solid waste management, access to sanitation, and clean water.
  • People who are most vulnerable should be prioritised for assistance.

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

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.

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.
Impact detail
Detailed potential environmental impact information

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 sicknesses.

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.

Guidance

Summary
Summary of environmental activities
  • Provide training in understanding and achieving good nutrition, followed by understanding and addressing the root causes of malnutrition, including environmental drivers. Provide support in growing nutritious and diverse food, and in food preparation, cooking, and cultural acceptance.
  • Train in increasing local water resources; flood prevention; sustainable farming; stopping harmful land clearance; reducing solid waste pollution and disease spread; resilience to climate change impacts; effective sanitation; accessing clean water; good hygiene practices including food hygiene and storage; and therefore disease prevention.
Detail
Detailed guidance for implementing suggested environmental activities
  • Affected populations should be supported in understanding and achieving good nutrition, and as they recover they should also be supported in understanding and addressing the root causes of malnutrition. This should include understanding and addressing environmental drivers of malnutrition.
  • Support communities in understanding nutritional requirements 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.
  • Support communities and local actors with training in increasing local water retention, infiltration, groundwater recharge, and water storage to increase resilience against drought. Train communities in flood prevention and in more sustainable farming techniques. Train them regarding stopping harmful land clearance practices, solid waste pollution, disease spread, climate change impacts, and reducing conflict over natural resources. Provide training 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 sickness.
Lessons Learnt
Lessons from past experiences

An NGO working with rural communities in Uganda supported them in growing flood and drought-resilient root crops. However, uptake was low as people were hesitant to change their diets. This NGO changed its approach and supported farmers in exporting these crops as cash crops in local towns. As sales grew, the rural communities started adapting their diet to include these now increasingly familiar crops.

Activity Measurement
Environmental indicators/monitoring examples

The number of targeted, contextualised nutrition training courses delivered that include 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 consult communities, assess their nutritional status, behaviours and underlying drivers of malnutrition and develop and deliver training.

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