When   Thursday, November 5, 2009   Time   6:00 PM - 8:30 PM  
Where   Levy Mayer Hall Lincoln Hall 357 E. Chicago Ave.   map it
Audience   - Faculty/Staff - Student - Public
Contact   Kate Dargis   847-491-7323  
Group   Program of African Studies
More Info   www.northwestern.edu/african-studies

Please join Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University on the evening of Thursday, November 5, 2009 at Levy Mayer Hall (in the Lincoln Hall Room) for a panel discussion about the international response to the ongoing crisis of childhood malnutrition.

Reception at 6:00, followed by panel at 7:00 pm.

Will Reno, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University, a specialist in African politics and the politics of "collapsing states", will moderate the discussion.

Dr. Marc Levin, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid worker who has completed several field assignments, including programs providing treatment to malnourished children in Niger in 2008.

Johanne Sekkenes, is Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Director of Operational Support. As a nurse who has completed many field assignments, she was Head of Mission for MSF’s programs in Niger in 2005.

Following MSF’s massive intervention during the nutritional emergency in Niger in 2005, when medical teams treated more than 60,000 severely malnourished children, MSF invited a variety of authors to reflect on the multifaceted crisis. The result is the recently released book Niger 2005: A Not-So Natural Disaster. The book explores the various lenses through which aid agencies, international institutions, national governments, policy makers, and mothers themselves viewed the crisis and looks at how lessons learned in Niger can be applied to future crises.  

Based on this and other field experience treating malnutrition, MSF has identified key policy and programmatic changes that can be made to improve the dire situation faced by millions of vulnerable children each year in the world's malnutrition hotspots of Southeast Asia and parts of Africa including the Sahel and the Horn. In particular, MSF is calling on the United States and other international donors to scale up effective programs and to make sure that food aid meets the nutritional needs of children.  

This event is free, wheelchair-accessible, and open to the public.

Please join us for a reception prior to the discussion, from 6 - 7 pm in the Lincoln Hall Room

Questions? Contact PAS at 847-491-7323 or african-studies@northwestern.edu

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