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A multidisciplinary consortium of leading nutrition, gender, economic, health, and food system experts examining the scale and reach of global economic, conflict, climate, and health shocks and their adverse impact on nutrition for millions of vulnerable women and children.
ST4N Knowledge Hub launched!
The Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium has launched a searchable Knowledge Hub that includes emerging evidence on the impact of crises on nutritional outcomes and their determinants, and effective measures to mitigate that nutritional burden. This Knowledge Hub comprises nutrition-related evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war and other conflicts, climate shocks, economic crises, and relevant past crises. It includes peer-reviewed literature, reports, and articles from respected sources for the scientific community, policymakers, advocacy groups, implementing organizations, and a general audience.
Help us build this Knowledge Hub. This is a dynamic, publicly accessible repository. We ask for your help to continue to expand and improve this. Please send any suggested sources to ST4Nmail@micronutrientforum.org.
The COVID-19 crisis
New data and evidence show that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to widespread increases in malnutrition due to disruptions in food, health and social protection systems. Lockdown measures are disrupting the production, transportation, and sale of nutritious, fresh and affordable foods, forcing millions of families to rely on nutrient-poor alternatives. Early reports suggest substantial drops in the coverage of preventive health services, including vaccination and antenatal care programs, as well as declines in optimal breastfeeding practices for fear of virus transmission.
The fundamental role of nutrition
While policymakers and public health leaders manage a range of urgent priorities, delivering good nutrition must be a foundational component of an effective pandemic response strategy. Good nutrition helps lessen the effects and risks of COVID-19, and is a prerequisite for the physical, immunological, and cognitive development of children and the health and productivity of adults. In short, no individual, community, or nation can thrive without good nutrition.
Responding to the challenge
To address these challenges, Standing Together for Nutrition (ST4N) formed as a multidisciplinary consortium to assess the impact of COVID-19 on nutritional status. ST4N will model projected impacts during the short- and long-term recovery phases of the pandemic and identify recommendations to mitigate damage – drawing from agenda-setting data and evidence-based policy materials, including the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (SOFI2020), and the recent United Nation (UN) policy brief, The impact of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition.
Making the case for action
The ST4N Lancet Commentary published in July 2020 was a companion piece to Child malnutrition and COVID-19: the time to act is now, also published in The Lancet from the directors-general of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP), and World Health Organization (WHO), which issued a call to action to protect children’s right to adequate nutrition in the face of COVID-19.
The Ukraine war
Act now before Ukraine war plunges millions into malnutrition
Governments, donors and others must step up to protect current and future generations from the devastating effects of malnutrition, as well as to prevent acute food insecurity. Read more