Editor's Note: Last week, we shared with you the exciting news of the launch of the REFANI Research Initiative, a partnership among Action Against Hunger, Concern Worldwide, the Emergency Nutrition Network, and the University College of London to measure the effectiveness of cash-based programs to prevent acute malnutrition. Today, we follow up with an interview with our Technical Director, Silke Pietzsch, who discusses REFANI and the role cash can play in combatting malnutrition.

Q: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM), although treatable, accounts for nearly half of all child deaths. What are some of the ways in which Action Against Hunger tries to improve this situation?

A: Action Against Hunger employs a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to addressing undernutrition, particularly severe acute malnutrition (SAM). This holistic approach is comprised of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive activities. The former focuses on the medical treatment of children with SAM through cooperation with ministries of health and national health services. The latter addresses the underlying causes of SAM in a local context which lead us to operate programmes on water and sanitation and complementary feeding practices, for example. In order to best aid our beneficiaries, we conduct Nutrition Causal Analyses, aimed at developing appropriate response plans for tackling and preventing undernutrition in each situation and local context.

Q: Ideally, we would be able to prevent SAM and ensure that children never become malnourished: What are some of the more recent interventions designed to prevent SAM?

A: Currently, the treatment of SAM is really focused on ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), and there are not any new designs around it. However we have been trying to find alternatives to deal with the prevention of SAM, like cash and voucher programs in combination with educational sessions tailored to the fundamental causes of undernutrition in each individual context. Cash and vouchers are useful in expanding access to goods which may have a possible influence on the prevention of undernutrition. Nevertheless, it is crucial to first understand the underlying problems, and then to use cash and vouchers as a tool to combat them.

Q: Action Against Hunger is the lead implementing partner on the Research on Food Assistance for Nutritional Impact (REFANI) project. How do you expect this project to reinforce evidence on cash/voucher based interventions?

A: There is little evidence on how cash and voucher programs influence nutritional outcomes in women and children under five years of age (see REFANI literature review). The REFANI project gives us a unique opportunity to create new evidence and contribute to a better understanding of these new food assistance methods. The project itself looks at these different modalities, like voucher versus cash, but also considers various implementation periods and different transfer amounts, for example, which will be important to all sorts of policy makers, from governments, to family welfare programs, to social protection experts. The expected use of the REFANI outcomes and the applicability of the new evidence are far reaching and will inform a variety of stakeholders, all across the globe.