WHO and UNICEF established an independent Technical Expert Advisory group on Nutrition Monitoring (TEAM) to provide advice on how to enhance nutrition monitoring efforts at all levels. The TEAM is also expected to help identify emerging research questions and needs related to nutrition monitoring and to recommend actions towards developing and/or refining indicators and methods. A more specific and immediate focus of the TEAM is to complete the development of monitoring and reporting guidelines for the 20 core indicators of the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition related to the WHA global nutrition targets.
The TEAM is a gender- and regional balanced group of ten technical experts. A joint WHO-UNICEF Secretariat supports the TEAM. The TEAM members use their networks and also reach out to other experts and agencies for collaboration. Thematic sub-working groups will be convened as needed. The roles and responsibilities, scope and purpose, and operational modalities of the TEAM are described in the Terms of Reference of the TEAM.
The first TEAM meeting was held in July 2015 and a work plan for the first two years developed with six top-line work areas:
- WHA nutrition targets operational guidelines;
- Prevalence level ranges for public health significance of malnutrition;
- Rules for assessing on track/off track for WHA targets;
- Anthropometry data quality;
- Research agenda for global nutrition monitoring; and
- Engagement with other partners.
The 2nd TEAM meeting in New York on 4 - 5 February 2016 had two sessions – an open half-day session with invited partners and a closed session of one and a half days for the TEAM meeting. The WHO-UNICEF secretariat briefed partners on the structure and function of the TEAM, and partners had the opportunity to provide input on priorities as well as modalities for their engagement. The report on the partner session is available as a separate document.