Case Study: Communicating for impact in the State of Palestine (SoP)

The nutrition situation in Gaza has deteriorated rapidly since conflict erupted in October 2023 between Hamas and Israel armed forces.

In the six months since, there has been a sharp increase in the main drivers of malnutrition – including food insecurity, a lack of diet diversity, deteriorating infant and young child feeding practices, a lack of access to safe water and sanitation, widespread disease, and a collapsed health system. Currently, 1.1 million people are projected to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5). 

This has had severe consequences on those most vulnerable to malnutrition – namely young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Findings from the analysis we published in February 2024, revealed that the nutrition situation of women and children in Gaza is worsening everywhere – especially in Northern Gaza where 1 in 3 children under 2 years is acutely malnourished. The nutrition situation has also worsened in Rafah as now 1 in 10 children under two years suffer from acute malnutrition. 
 

Educating communities to save lives from malnutrition

In December 2023, Armelle Sacher, a consultant and social and behavior change (SBC) expert, was tasked with creating a series of informative flyers, job aids, and community posters to educate communities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank about proper nutrition and how to identify and treat malnutrition.

Armelle worked remotely with the State of Palestine (SoP) Nutrition Cluster, implementing partners, and UNICEF Coordination Office and Regional Office to create these educational resources, which would accompany the nutritional products being distributed to those experiencing malnutrition – including high-energy biscuits and Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food.

Armelle also assisted with developing job aids to equip on-the-ground responders with key social and behavior messages to communicate during distributions and follow up visits. This guidance helps ensure that nutritional products are being used accurately and optimally. It also supports the Nutrition Cluster Coordination team, UN agencies, and implementing partners to put in place social and behavior change activities linked to the nutrition response that are culturally and contextually appropriate.

Lessons learned

SoP nutrition partners were very committed to the development process and to providing timely and constructive inputs, while the SoP Nutrition Cluster Coordinator was quick in answering and mobilizing nutrition key actors for the review. However, there were a number of challenges during the process.

Overall, the timeline (three weeks) proved tight to perform all the deliverables, given that partners on the ground were very busy responding to many urgent priorities. Therefore, urgency was given to producing the job aid because nutritional products distribution and follow up was of the utmost importance to save lives from malnutrition.

Another challenge was the process to translate and design the graphics for the resources, which was more time consuming than anticipated. After discussing with the SoP Nutrition Cluster Coordinator, it was decided that the follow-up could be handled internally by UNICEF’s SBC Specialist, since he has been involved at all steps of the process and had the required skills. In the future, it is advised to send material content for translation as early as possible in the process, to avoid such delays.

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