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ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS IN A RELIEF PROGRAMME IN NIGER: A TOOL FOR DECISION MAKING AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
Author(s) -
Goyet C. de Ville,
Jeannee E.,
Lechat M. F.,
Bouckaert A.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1977.tb00036.x
Subject(s) - clos network , humanities , sociology , art , telecommunications , engineering
During emergencies, life and death decisions may have to be made quickly and on the basis of inadequate information. In May 1974 towards the end of the drought which affected wide areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the government of Niger (GN) together with the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) decided to carry out a nutritional relief programme for part of the affected population. In contrast t o Upper Volta' and Mauritania* little objective data was available upon which to base plans for this programme. A comprehensive sampling survey had been carried out by the United States Centre for Disease Control6 which provided the only hard data available, but unfortunately, this survey was confined exclusively to the sedentary population of the area, nomads not being included, and opporturuties to gather data earlier in the drought had been lost". Moreover, most of the relief personnel in charge of decision-making were apparently unaware of the availability of this data. This paper describes an attempt to use the anthropometric assessment of human nutritional status as a basis for making administrative decisions on priorities in the distribution of relief and the location of medical relief teams.