Two staff members from Canadian Foodgrains Bank have returned from the 31st Canadian Conference on Global Health (CCGH) in Halifax, N.S., where they led a panel focused on the critical role of nutrition especially for children and their caregivers living in fragile settings.
Over the years, Foodgrains Bank has supported local partners through its 15 member agencies to implement emergency nutrition services in some of the most complex conflict settings worldwide.
The panel discussion titled ‘Fragile Settings, Unbreakable Resolve: Lifesaving Nutrition Services in Conflict and Chaos’ highlighted both the challenges of providing acute malnutrition treatment in these contexts, and the creative ways of overcoming obstacles to ensure service delivery remains uninterrupted.
Staff from Zanmi Lasante Haiti, Trócaire Somalia, and Trócaire Sudan – voices from the frontlines of some of the world’s largest humanitarian crises – joined the panel to speak on tackling immense barriers to providing vital emergency nutrition services in humanitarian contexts, and the strategies they are using to continue in this lifesaving work.
“It’s a cycle of crisis after crisis; droughts, followed by floods, which pre-disposed children to measles, [so] we had to respond to a measles outbreak and floods,” says Europe Maalim, head of programmes at Trócaire Somalia.
Maalim also acknowledged the importance of relying on local knowledge and involving locally-led implementation of projects – a partnership model that Foodgrains Bank and our members are fully committed to. “Involve them in the designs of what you are implementing… communities are equal partners, not beneficiaries.”
Amid insecurity and displacement, infants and young children are among the most vulnerable, and children living in conflict zones are more than twice as likely to become malnourished than children living in a peaceful setting.
“We were honoured to bring attention to this important conversation in a Canadian setting, as Canada continues to be a champion for advancing global nutrition,” say Foodgrains Bank food assistance and nutrition technical advisor Vanessa Pike and senior program officer Tineh Aliu, who co-hosted the panel.
Foodgrains Bank food assistance and nutrition technical advisor Vanessa Pike speaking at the Canadian Conference of Global Health 2025.
“Nutrition is more than calories – it’s about upholding dignity, reducing suffering, and preserving life itself. Children who are malnourished face an 11-fold increased risk of death, so preventing and treating malnutrition is an urgent priority. This has a ripple effect to entire communities and the next generation. The conversations we had this week reminded us that we’re part of a global community working toward the same goal: a world where everyone has a bright future free from hunger and malnutrition.”
