Mauritania: Scaling up the fight against child hunger and malnutrition in south-east Mauritania
JOINT PROGRAMME QUICK FACTS
Total Budget $7,500,000
Delivery Rate
Participating Agencies WFP, UNICEF, WHO, FAO
Main Achievements
- 107, 802 children have received Vitamin A supplements and deworming treatment.
- Malnutrition screening underway and more than 7700 malnourished children and 300 women treated for malnutrition in the context of the national strategy to combat malnutrition.
- Vegetable, grain and crop demonstrations to improve yields have taken place and 42 project sites have been identified. Credit unions are serving 2,100 direct and 15,000 indirect beneficiaries with loans to improve food security.
The joint programme aims to reverse the current worsening in underweight prevalence in children under five in two south-eastern regions of Mauritania. In these regions, where malnutrition and food insecurity levels are highest and living conditions are in fastest decline, underweight prevalence in the under-fives rose from 35% in 2007 to 40% in 2008.
The programme will involve the rollout of a package of integrated interventions for the prevention and treatment of malnutrition, targeting 107,000 children and 316,000 women in over 120,000 households. This intervention package has been developed with an emphasis on sustainable actions for improving food security, changing feeding behaviours and strengthening the management of malnutrition. The programme will engage a regional mechanism for coordination and supervision, within an integrated multi-partner and multi-sector approach.