IFE Core Group Meeting Report 2023

The IFE Core Group (IFE-CG) 2023 Annual Meeting was hosted by Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) and held virtually with remote participation over two days (November 13th and 15th 2023). The meeting was facilitated by the IFE-CG Steering Committee (SC) members. The meeting agenda can be found in Appendix 1. This year’s meeting was dedicated to reviewing the findings and recommendations of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) conducted by an ENN consultant, Caroline Abla. The MTR was carried out to assess progress against the IFE-CG strategy, which runs from 2020 to 2024, by examining what activities the IFE-CG has undertaken, with whom and how (“the way we work”), appraising if and the degree to which the IFE-CG as a collective is needed and in what way (relevance), and reviewing and advising on IFE-CG governance and ways of working to deliver on commitments most effectively and efficiently. Since it is halfway through the IFE-CG strategy period, it was deemed a good opportunity to take stock of how the IFE-CG has evolved and moved forward over the last few years and what the priorities are for the remainder of the strategy period.

The main objectives of this year’s meeting were therefore to:

• Share the process and results of the MTR and ensure the IFE-CG collective has a clear understanding of the findings
• Share the proposed recommendations and discuss the way forward based on the data collected for the MTR
• Reach consensus on the next steps and the way forward based on the MTR findings
• The IFE-CG membership, including the IFE-CG SC members, attended the meeting which was split over two days.
• Each day consisted of a morning (AM) session and an afternoon (PM) session to accommodate members in different time zones. 10AM-1PM UK time on Days 1 and 2 were for members attending the AM sessions, and 2PM-5PM UK time on Days 1 and 2 were for members attending the PM sessions. The same content was covered in both the AM and PM sessions, although an update was provided in the PM session on discussions that had happened in the AM session to facilitate some continuity between the sessions.

A total of 42 IFE-CG members attended the meeting across the two days (in addition there were two ENN operational staff members who supported with the logistics of the meeting); see Appendix 2 for a full list of participants. Day 1 consisted of two sessions. Session 1 was a presentation of the findings from the IFE-CG MTR by Caroline Abla, and Session 2 involved the membership breaking into smaller groups to discuss the findings and then feeding back in a plenary discussion. On Day 2, there was a recap of Day 1 discussions and a further two sessions. Session 3 involved a presentation of Caroline Abla’s recommendations for the IFE-CG moving forward, and Session 4 involved the members breaking into small groups to discuss the recommendations and feeding back in a plenary discussion to inform the next steps for the collective. This report provides an overview of the meeting's proceedings, including key discussion points and the next steps/recommendations prioritised by the collective moving forward. Presentations and materials from the meeting can be found in Appendix 3.