The World Health Organization reported 63 malnutrition-related deaths in the Gaza Strip in July, including 24 children under age five. In a WIRED article, Feinstein Research Assistant Professor Merry Fitzpatrick…
Merry Fitzpatrick
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Merry’s research interests span two separate but related fields, severe malnutrition and famine. She has had a long-term interest in livelihoods and food security in conflict and post-conflict settings.
As a member of the Feinstein International Center, she has conducted research on famines in Somalia, Sudan, and Gaza in real-time, and resilience and livelihoods in multiple countries in crisis. She is a member of the IPC Famine Review Committee, an panel of international technical experts to evaluate potential IPC Famine classifications. Her other major research interest is the biological effects of severely inadequate diets in famine-like conditions, and kwashiorkor malnutrition in particular.
Although Merry has worked in most regions of the world, her research interests are primarily in Africa around the Great Lakes, and drylands extending from Sudan to Burkina Faso. Merry has more than 20 years of field experience in humanitarian response. She worked with multiple humanitarian agencies, including the International Rescue Committee, GOAL Ireland, Food for the Hungry and World Concern.
Merry holds a B.S. in chemistry from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.B.A. with a concentration in international development from Hope International University, an M.Sc. in food policy and applied nutrition, and a Ph.D. from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts.
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MOST CITED BOOKS & ARTICLES
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FEINSTEIN PUBLICATIONS
This synthesis report reflects upon Phase 1 findings on humanitarian action in pastoral drylands of the Greater Horn and Sudano-Sahel.
This desk study examines common perceptions of pastoralism among humanitarians and barriers to international humanitarian systems meeting pastoralists’ needs.
Building on a previous report on the localization of humanitarian assistance, this study focuses on issues unique to the localization of humanitarian research.
This study reviews what we have learned regarding policies and interventions to prevent famine, and how these can be scaled up more rapidly.
This report examines how informal social safety nets operate, the functions they serve, who benefits, and the obligations on community members in North and South Darfur.
This report uses an innovative real-time index, the Income Streams Index (ISI), to teach us how households in three states in Darfur Sudan managed and adapted their livelihood activities in the face of multiple shocks of various types and sizes over three years.
This report explores the nexus (small n), as a way of programming, and the HDP Nexus approach (capital N), as the approach promoted by the UN and OECD/DAC.
This brief reviews how farming, agro-pastoralist, and pastoralist livelihood systems in Darfur are permanently changing in response to these major changes and in the face of ever-increasing pressure on natural resources.
ISI is a measure of one aspect of resilience that is being developed and refined through a three-year longitudinal panel study embedded in the Taadoud program. This report uses data from six rounds of data collection and describes trends in livelihood activities, correlating them with ISI scores over time.
This study found that there is a relatively small overlap between people deemed the most influential and the elected committee members of self-organizing groups.
Sometimes a group of people within a community exist somewhat separately. A clique is a subset of people within a larger group that has intense interaction within the subset but…
This brief explores the role of Neighbor Groups and Lead Mothers in supporting parents to care for their children in Budikaki.
The Budikadidi program struggled to reach the most vulnerable people through mainstream activities. However, when the program created groups specifically adapted to the unique needs and limitations of the most vulnerable, these people were able to participate and benefit from the program.
This publication presents a literature review activities in covering topics related to the natural environment and natural resource management in the Darfur region. This desk review serves as a foundation and reference for the NRM field studies and series of briefs, as part of the Taadoud II program, as well as supporting the development of training materials.
Livelihood systems in Darfur have experienced massive shocks and extreme changes over the past two decades. Though most communities are making positive progress, their recovery from multiple shocks over the…
This report describes exactly how shocks have affected specific livelihood groups in Darfur, the extent to which people have been able successful at recovering their self-sufficiency, and why.
This scoping study explores the resilience strategies of households in multiple livelihood systems by describing how households in Darfur have coped with conflict and other shocks over the past fifteen…
FEINSTEIN RESEARCH PROJECTS
This project includes studies on early warning and assessment of crises, specifically looking at real-time monitoring, anticipatory action, political constraints, data collection and analysis, and the validity of indicators.
This project aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of populations in pastoral areas of the Sudano-Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa by ensuring that early warning systems and humanitarian action are better attuned and more responsive to the needs and realities of these communities.
This project reconsiders our understanding of famines, the dynamics that give rise to famines, the resilience of populations subjected to these dynamics, and the means of prevention at the disposal of governments, humanitarian agencies, donors, and the affected populations.
This research program seeks to understand the enabling and hindering factors that support localized or locally led humanitarian responses to natural disasters, conflicts, and prolonged complex emergencies.
The RISING II operational research analyzes the informal social safety nets—how they function, who benefits from them, and how external support interacts with them—in multiple program areas in Darfur, Sudan.
This project is harnessing the power of interdisciplinary teams and community participation to co-create solutions that will guide better tailored responses to food crises.
The Taadoud operational research aims to strengthen the impact of resilience-related actions and interventions.
In a series of webinars, researchers and practitioners review recent evidence related to kwashiorkor malnutrition.
Budikadidi is a five-year (2016-2021) development program to promote self-sufficiency and improved nutrition in the isolated, under-developed Kasai Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).The Feinstein International Center is leading three studies under this program.