Over the years Oxfam has been involved in a wide variety of health-related projects. The Practical Health Guides draw on this experience to put forward ideas on best practice in the provision of health care and services in developing countries. Where people are suffering from food scarcity or famine, the obvious response seems to be food aid. This may indeed be necessary, but handing out food may not be the best solution, and other actions could be equally urgent, such as public health or income support measures. This book provides a new approach to assessing and responding to situations of food scarcity and gives a comprehensive explanation of how to assess these situations in order to judge which interventions will be most effective. This book offers advice on carrying out initial assessments and nutrition surveys, and emphasises the importance of finding out the underlying causes of food scarcity by seeking out the views of those affected. Food distribution, and how to target the people who need it most, supplementary and therapeutic feeding programmes, are also covered.

Helen Young
Helen Young leads the Darfur Livelihoods Programme at the ODI, which combines research, capacity development and institutional change. As a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, in Sussex, she reviewed nutritional assessment and response to situations of food insecurity and famine.

The politics of food and starvation

Bush, Ray

Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 23 (1996), Iss. 68 P.169

https://doi.org/10.1080/03056249608704194 [Citations: 4]

A Computer Assisted Exercise in Classifying Nutritional Status: A New Tool for Learning

MACFARLANE, S.B.J.

McCONNELL, C.R.

RUSSELL, W.B.

Disasters, Vol. 17 (1993), Iss. 1 P.70

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.1993.tb00490.x [Citations: 1]

Tactical network planning for food aid distribution in Kenya

Rancourt, Marie-Ève

Cordeau, Jean-François

Laporte, Gilbert

Watkins, Ben

Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 56 (2015), Iss. P.68

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2014.10.018 [Citations: 41]

Method for estimating body weight in persons with lower-limb amputation and its implication for their nutritional assessment

Mozumdar, Arupendra

Roy, Subrata K

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80 (2004), Iss. 4 P.868

https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/80.4.868 [Citations: 25]

Refugee Density and Dependence: Practical Implications of Camp Size

COSGRAVE, JOHN

Disasters, Vol. 20 (1996), Iss. 3 P.261

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.1996.tb01038.x [Citations: 3]

Bringing Population Dynamics into Food Balance Sheet Calculations

KELLY, CHARLES

Disasters, Vol. 18 (1994), Iss. 2 P.171

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.1994.tb00299.x [Citations: 0]

Human right to food security in refugee settings: rhetoric versus reality

Renzaho, André M N

Australian Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 8 (2002), Iss. 1 P.43

https://doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2002.11911072 [Citations: 5]

Livelihood adaptation to risk: Constraints and opportunities for pastoral development in Ethiopia's Afar region

Davies, Jonathan

Bennett, Richard

The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 43 (2007), Iss. 3 P.490

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380701204422 [Citations: 59]

Livestock Improve Household Food Security and Sustainability of Ethiopian Small Farms

Kassa, Habtemariam

Gibbon, David

Singh, Bharat P.

Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 21 (2002), Iss. 2 P.73

https://doi.org/10.1300/J064v21n02_07 [Citations: 8]

Resources, reviews and miscellaneous

Gender & Development, Vol. 2 (1994), Iss. 1 P.59

https://doi.org/10.1080/09682869308520003 [Citations: 0]

Assessing the levels of food shortage using the traffic light metaphor by analyzing the gathering and consumption of wild food plants, crop parts and crop residues in Konso, Ethiopia

Ocho, Dechassa Lemessa

Struik, Paul C

Price, Lisa L

Kelbessa, Ensermu

Kolo, Koshana

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, Vol. 8 (2012), Iss. 1

https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-8-30 [Citations: 17]