HIV and Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Operational Guidance

The purpose of this document is to provide operational guidance on HIV and infant feeding in emergencies. It is intended to be used to complement emergency and sectoral guidelines on health, nutrition and HIV, including specifically infant feeding, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and paediatric antiretroviral treatment. The envisaged target audience consists of decision-makers, policy-makers, national and subnational government managers and planners, managers of refugee camps and similar settlements for displaced persons, and managers and planners in United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other groups responding to humanitarian situations, as well as donors.

This operational guidance is based on a consultation convened by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Emergency Nutrition Network in Geneva in September 2016, which brought together a cross-section of senior-level participants from United Nations agencies, government, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and other agencies working in nutrition and HIV in emergencies. A background paper for the meeting presented experiences from the field.