Speaker Details

Mr Stephen Jarrett

Biography

As part of UNICEF Supply Division Management for 12 years, Mr. Jarrett has been engaged in strategic issues and problem solving concerning the supply function supporting children’s programs in 160 countries with over $1 billion procurement value annually. He has overseen the global procurement and management of vaccines, pharmaceuticals and immunization materials, maintaining contact with senior management in pharmaceutical and vaccine companies worldwide. Currently, he advises UNICEF on the introduction and scale-up of new technologies related to child survival and development, needed by countries to meet the MDGs. His current specific focus is on ready-to-use foods for combating child malnutrition, including local manufacturing. Mr. Jarrett recently completed 36 years of service with UNICEF, having worked in various capacities during this time. These have included diverse field assignments in program management in several countries of the Americas in the 1970s, and as senior health officer in China in the 1980s, supporting the achievement of universal child immunization. He has also worked as a senior adviser to UNICEF on health systems strengthening, with a focus on drug supply systems in sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries. Mr. Jarrett holds a BSc degree from the University of Southampton, U.K. and an MPH degree from Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. He has published numerous articles on issues concerned with immunization and health services strengthening.

Abstract

Making ready-to-use therapeutic foods readily available to treat children with severe acute malnutrition:

Nearly 20 million children under five are estimated to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, leading to over 1 million deaths annually. New evidence suggest that large numbers of severely acutely malnourished children, who have appetite and are free of severe medical complications, can be treated in their communities using ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), which have been developed in the last decade. The production capacity of RUTF will have to be substantially increased for any significant scale-up of community-based management. Total available capacity is currently around 16,000 MT, enough for treating only 1 million childrn, or 5% of the estimated need. The local production of RUTF has proven successful in Niger, Malawi and Ethiopia and several initiatives in local production are underway in a number of countries in Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Production in developing countries enhances local capacities with a potentially positive effect in terms of longer-term sustainability. A concerted effort in technology transfer and investment to support the effective building of local production on a commercial basis in a significant number of least developed countries is required in order to properly address the situation of severe acute malnutrition.