Past support to Zambia
Requester
UNICEF
Background
Zambia faced significant rainfall deficits, especially in the southern, western and central which resulted in poor agricultural harvest and acute food insecurity. A total of 58 districts out of 118 districts were greatly affected. About 1.8 million people were in IPC Phase 3, marginally meeting minimum food needs and 410,000 people were in IPC Phase 4 emergency, facing large food gaps. This led to households employing food-based coping strategies, such as reducing the number of meals a day and a projected 2.3 million people in these districts were expected to be food insecure and in need of urgent action. The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) prevalence in the drought-affected regions of the country was 8.7% while the mortality rate from severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) was 8%. SAM and MAM cases were expected to rise considering the food crisis.
The request
To improve the quality of the management of SAM cases and to absorb the potential increase of cases due to the drought, there was an urgent need for strong capacity development to improve the quality of treatment, accompanied by the appropriate provision of therapeutic supplies and systematic medical treatment for both the inpatient and outpatient care. As such JCTR requested technical support for the CMAM advisor from the GNC Technical Alliance.
Key Achievements:
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Developed CMAM program scale up plan including a) supply needs, b) distribution plan, c) capacity building plan, d) monitoring and supervision plan outlining gaps, activities, timeline, and resources and funding needed.
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Developed a brief report on the capacity strengthening activities undertaken, including trainings, mentoring of partners and ‘on the job’ technical support provided.
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Reviewed database to monitor the CMAM program: Recommendations on how to improve data collection and reporting quality to track progress using indicators agreed upon by the Nutrition Sector members.
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Hand over briefing document for in-coming Emergency Nutrition Specialist with priority actions that need to be taken forward.
Key resources
Requester
UNICEF
Background
The persistent impact of poor nutrition due to drought continued in Zambia in 2018-2019. A projected 2.3 million people in these districts were food insecure and in urgent need of action during the lean season (October 2019 – March 2020). The Zambia Vulnerability Assessment conducted in July 2019 integrated a nutrition assessment component, the results of which revealed a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) of 8.7% in 87 of the districts, and 58 of these districts were considered drought affected. However, the anthropometric data were considered of questionable quality. Further, there was very little existing capacity in the country for the implementation of emergency nutrition assessments.
The request
It was therefore of great interest to stakeholders in Zambia to better understand the malnutrition status in the drought-affected districts. UNICEF Zambia requested the TST consortium to coordinate the implementation of a series of surveys to assess the nutrition status of the 58 drought-affected districts. On 11 November 2019, the TST Assessment Advisor provided support to Lusaka, Zambia.
Key Achievement:
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Developed a Nutrition 4W tool (what, who where and when) to support the response
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Conducted a nutrition assessment capacity mapping exercise for Zambia
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Established and supported an Assessment Technical Working Group
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Designed and coordinated the Zambia Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ZENA), aimed at implementing 10 SMART surveys
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Developed and adapted survey tools for the ZENA, including electronic questionnaire for mobile data collection translated into 4 local languages
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Provided technical support to the SMART surveyor trainings (5)
Key resources
Exploratory and Capacity mapping Sioma Shang filed visit report