Policy highlights:

• In December 2016, the 32nd Annual The Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) meeting focused on stunting, which affected 19 to 21 million children under the age of five in the Sahel and West Africa region in 2015.
• Policy recommendations are: 1) strengthen the links between humanitarian assistance and social protection systems, 2) link nutrition interventions to other sectors like agriculture, health, education and employment in a coordinated policy for more impactful and sustainable outcomes (strong political leadership is needed here), 3) prioritize better targeting based on impact evaluations, for example, in relation to specific populations, 4) ensure that social protection empowers women, as nutrition and gender challenges are linked (women transmit malnourishment to their children and women’s increased autonomy and resources improve food and nutrition security for their families), 5) support social protection with sustainable financing, and 6) anticipate future social and economic challenges, like rapid population growth, rapid urbanisation and changes to the informal economy, in social protection planning.