ACF International Network
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Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
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Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
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Action Against Hunger's programs are sustainable because of our commitment to community participation—to build local capacity and harnesses a population's energy and resources.
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Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
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Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
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Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
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Action Against Hunger occupies a unique place among international organizations: our expertise encompasses emergency relief, longer-term development, and the terrain in between.
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We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
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Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
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Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
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Where We Work

Research: Expanding the Ready-to-Eat Revolution with New Nutritional Products

Huge strides were made some 13 years ago when Action Against Hunger piloted the first ever therapeutic milk formula used in the medical treatment of severe acute malnutrition. Prior to 1994, one in four children with severe acute malnutrition did not survive treatment. Their bodies too weakened to recover, they would die despite the availability of food and medical attention. It wasn’t until the development of specialized nutritional products like the milk formulas F-100 and F-75 that mortality rates began to drop significantly. And drop they did—by 75%, a revolutionary advance by any standard. These novel products were made widely available, thanks in large part to the refusal of Action Against Hunger’s Scientific Committee to patent the formula they had created, thus making it available to all humanitarian agencies treating malnutrition.

A second revolution began some 10 years ago, and is only now coming to fruition. The advances achieved with the milk formulas are being multiplied as nutritional products evolve. Building on Action Against Hunger’s field experience, scientists worked to develop a new formulation that could be used more broadly. They succeeded in creating a “ready-to-use” version of the milk formula that replicated its therapeutic nutritional value, but with added benefits. This new product, known as Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic-Foods (RUTF), requires no preparation before being eaten, no dilution with water (thus avoiding contamination from unclean water sources), requires no refrigeration, possesses a long shelf-life, and can be stored virtually anywhere—making distribution more convenient for our beneficiaries. This ready-to-use version was named “Plumpy’nut” and is the most widely used RUTF to date.

With the development of this new product the fight against malnutrition can be carried out beyond the confines of our therapeutic hospitals. Because of our long-standing commitment to scientific research—and thanks to this innovation in treatment—a new shift towards community-based care has become a reality, opening a new era in the treatment of malnutrition.