The Infant Feeding in Emergencies (IFE) Core Group is a global collaboration of agencies and individuals that formed in 1999 to address policy guidance and training resource gaps hampering programming on infant and young child feeding support in humanitarian contexts. The IFE Core Group works to develop guidance and resource materials; documents lessons learned and builds capacity to ensure more effective infant and young child feeding (IYCF) support in emergency contexts (IYCF-E).
The IFE Core Group is coordinated by the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN). Current members of the Group include ACF, ADRA, CDC, CGBI, CHEERing, Concern Worldwide, Eleanor Crook Foundation, ENN, Global Nutrition Cluster, Goal, IBFAN, IMC, IOCC, IRC, MSF, SafelyFed Canada, Samaritan’s Purse, Save the Children, UNHCR, UNICEF, USAID, USAID/OFDA, WFP, WHO, World Vision, and several independent individuals.
Latest IFE Core Group update
During the last quarter of 2021, the IFE Core Group held it's annual meeting which was held remotely and was attended by 37 members. The meeting aimed to regroup IFE Core Group members to discuss progress on activities, reflect on experiences during the year, and plan for the coming year. Several technical gaps were identified in this quarter. These include:
- Guidance to support countries to assess their specific context to inform and improve complementary feeding in emergencies programming
- 'Good practice' operational guidance to inform the development of national guidance on IYCF-E
- A need for a standardised IYCF-E glossary of terms
- Further integration between IYCF-E and MAMI work
- A need for further advocacy tools
- Guidance to support countries to assess their specific context to inform and improve complementary feeding in emergencies programming
These gaps have been incorporated into the IFE Core Group workplan for 2022.
New resources include:
- Joint Statement on Protecting Maternal & Child Nutrition in the Ukraine Conflict and Refugee Crisis (multiple language available)
- Infographics on IYCF, Infectious Disease and Preventing and Managing Inappropriate donations. These are available in multiple languages.
Two webinars were organized in this quarter: 'Learning & Sharing Cafe: Preventing and managing inappropriate donations of BMS' and 'WHO/UNICEF IYCF Indicators: Challenges and opportunities in humanitarian contexts'.
For more information on any of the activities highlights or if you would like to enquire about joining the IFE Core Group, please contact IFE Core Group Facilitator
