Series

Complex emergencies are often characterised by a high prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting and nutritional oedema) and micronutrient deficiency diseases. The current humanitarian response to nutritional crises originated in the 1940s and 1950s.1 The earliest efforts to estimate the extent and severity of the problem of malnutrition occurred during the Nigerian civil war in Biafra,2 the famines in Ethiopia,3,4 and among the Cambodian refugees in Thailand.5 Guidelines on nutritional surveys and nutrition programmes in complex emergencies were subsequently published.6–9 Over the past decade, although lessons have not necessarily been applied from one complex emergency to another, experience has been gained with each crisis. Understanding of malnutrition has improved and policie