This paper analyses the responses of four international aid agencies (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Food Programme, Médecins Sans Frontières-France and Save the Children Fund-UK) to the nutrition needs of and outbreaks of a serious nutritional disease (pellagra) among Mozambican refugees in Malawi in 1989 and 1990. It argues that agency mandates, deficiencies in agency accountability, an unclear division of reponsibilities between agencies, along with problems of inter-agency co-ordination, competition and conflict were primarily responsible for the pellagra outbreaks. It also argues that refugee nutritional requirements will not be met unless there is a better matching of short-term relief and long-term development approaches. © 1995 Oxford University Press.

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nutritional disease relief and development Mozambican refugees donor policy Malawi