Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger
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Name	Action Against Hunger
Caption	Logo
Formation	1979
Type	International non-governmental organization
Headquarters	Paris, France
Region served	Worldwide
Leader title	Chief Executive

Action Against Hunger is an international humanitarian organization founded in 1979 that focuses on preventing and treating acute malnutrition and addressing the underlying causes of hunger. The organization operates in contexts affected by conflict, disaster, and chronic poverty, coordinating emergency response and longer-term programs across multiple regions. It works alongside United Nations agencies, national authorities, and civil society groups to deliver nutrition, health, water, sanitation, and food security interventions.

History

Action Against Hunger was established in 1979 by a group of physicians and aid workers responding to famine and displacement in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the aftermath of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Early operations expanded into humanitarian crises such as the Ethiopian Civil War and the Sahel drought of the 1980s. In the 1990s the organization scaled up emergency nutrition programs during the Somalia Civil War and the Bosnian War, while engaging in reconstruction efforts in post-conflict settings like Rwanda and Sierra Leone. During the 2000s and 2010s, it responded to crises including the Haiti earthquake, the Syrian civil war, the Yemen crisis, and the South Sudanese Civil War, adapting programming to protracted displacement and urban vulnerability in cities such as Beirut, Cairo, and Nairobi. Institutional developments included partnerships with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, and national ministries of health.

Mission and Activities

The organization's stated mission centers on diagnosing, treating, and preventing acute malnutrition and promoting resilience among vulnerable populations. Core activities include community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM), therapeutic feeding centers, and integrated health and nutrition clinics that align with guidelines from the World Health Organization and the Sphere Project. The agency integrates water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions alongside nutrition services, often coordinating with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees operations in displacement contexts. It also implements food security and livelihoods projects linked to frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and collaborates with humanitarian coordination mechanisms like the Cluster approach (humanitarianism).

Programs and Interventions

Programs encompass emergency response, long-term resilience, and capacity-building. Emergency nutrition responses deploy outpatient therapeutic programs (OTPs) and stabilization centers following protocols from the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness and WHO recommendations. WASH interventions include borehole rehabilitation, chlorination, and behavior-change campaigns informed by studies published in journals associated with institutions like the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Johns Hopkins University. Food security activities leverage cash-transfer models tested in programs with donors such as the European Commission and the United States Agency for International Development and align with policies from the Food and Agriculture Organization. In protracted crises, the organization runs maternal and child health services in partnership with national ministries and coordinates with entities such as Médecins Sans Frontières and Save the Children to scale surgical nutrition and pediatric care. Research initiatives investigate acute malnutrition epidemiology, linking findings to guidance from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Organizational Structure and Funding

The organization is structured with a central board of trustees and national offices operating across continents, reporting to an executive leadership team and technical advisory committees. It maintains logistics, human resources, and monitoring and evaluation units that liaise with donors including bilateral agencies like DFID (now Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), multilateral funders such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and private foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Funding mixes earmarked emergency grants, multi-year program agreements, and public appeals; financial oversight follows standards promoted by the International Aid Transparency Initiative and auditing practices comparable to those of Oxfam and CARE International. Humanitarian access negotiation often involves coordination with Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement actors and local governance structures in fragile states.

Advocacy, Research, and Partnerships

Advocacy centers on elevating malnutrition on policy agendas, engaging with fora such as the World Humanitarian Summit and parliamentary briefings in capitals including Washington, D.C., Paris, and London. Research outputs feed into global guidance from the World Health Organization and contribute to evidence syntheses with academic partners like Imperial College London and Columbia University. The organization partners with universities, think tanks (for example, the Overseas Development Institute), and humanitarian consortia including the Global Nutrition Cluster to harmonize protocols and advance innovations such as ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) and mobile health surveillance systems compatible with tools from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. It also engages with corporate partners and the private sector under humanitarian principles, coordinating supply chains comparable to those used by UNICEF logistics.

Impact and Criticism

Impact reporting highlights the treatment of millions of children for acute malnutrition, construction of WASH infrastructure, and contributions to capacity-building in national health systems. Independent evaluations have credited the organization with reducing case fatality rates in therapeutic feeding programs and improving access to care in emergency settings, referencing standards from the Sphere Project and assessments by bodies like the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. Criticisms have addressed challenges common to large humanitarian NGOs: negotiating access in conflict zones such as Syria and Yemen, the balance between emergency response and development programming in contexts like the Sahel, and concerns over donor dependency raised in analyses by the Overseas Development Institute and investigative reporting in outlets such as The Guardian. Debates also consider coordination with armed actors, adherence to humanitarian principles, and transparency in funding allocations compared to sector peers such as Doctors Without Borders.

Category:International humanitarian organizations