Where We Work

Mozambique

Assessment Deployment: 14 June-8 August 2016

Reason for request:

Mozambique is currently facing a severe drought in the Central and Southern regions of the country as a consequence of El Niño weather patterns. A Food and Nutrition Security Assessment conducted by SETSAN (Technical Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security) in March 2016, indicated that approximately 1.5 million people are facing acute food insecurity and require urgent humanitarian assistance in the six most drought-affected provinces of Tete, Sofala, Manica, Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo. The INGC (National Institute of Disaster Management) has since activated a “Red Institutional Alert,” which allows for the prepositioning of supplies in at risk areas, constant situational monitoring and greater flexibility in the process of fund mobilization by humanitarian organizations.

Based on the aforementioned assessment, the drought is expected to contribute to a state of acute malnourishment in over 190,000 children aged 6-59 months over the next 12 months in the 6 provinces, in addition to 86,000 pregnant and lactating women. However, there has been some criticism of the assessment process and concern that response planning may be adversely affected by weak data and analysis. This is compounded by the absence of quality routine data or seasonal trend analysis. In addition, current in-country capacity for Nutrition in Emergencies, including nutrition assessments and data analysis is low and there is an urgent need for a technical expert who can rapidly improve the quality of data available upon which to build the emergency response.

In coordination with the Ministry of Health, SETSAN and the Nutrition Cluster, the Tech-RRT Assessment Advisor will contribute to strengthening the overall emergency nutrition response by building the capacity of response stakeholders in the design, implementation, analysis and reporting of nutrition assessments. H will also advise on the overall strengthening of routine data management in line with the needs and requirements of the emergency nutrition response.

Outcome:

  • led anthropometric demonstration sessions for (MUAC, weight, height) at national level SETSAN Assessment (SA) training, led MUAC standardization test training and helped to organize and conducted MUAC analysis for 11 province MUAC only standardization tests (first time for SA)
  • Organized a quality check mechanism using the ENA plausibility checks throughout the SA data collection in the 6 provinces collecting all anthropometry measurements.
  • Created a document titled Road Map for Strengthening Future SETSAN Assessments.  This document provides most urgent recommendations for all nutrition partners and Government colleagues based on observations and best practice.  This document will be updated as needed by Nutrition Cluster partners.
  • Attended Nutrition cluster meetings to provide SA updates and short term recommendations.  Last meeting provided summary of deployment, Road Map doc moving forward and methodology used to review and analyse 6 province anthropometric data.
  • Provided preliminary analysis for all 6 drought affected province data and final results reports for Tete, Manica, Gaza, and Inhambane provinces.  The final reports for the remaining provinces will be conducted by UNICEF after the hard copies of the questionnaires arrive in Maputo and SMART flags can be cross-checked for data entry errors.

CMAM Request

Reason for request:

Currently, Mozambique is facing a severe drought in the southern region and parts of central region due to El Niño prevailing conditions is being reported to be the strongest in 30 years. The food security and nutritional assessment of the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN) released in March 2016 estimates that 1.5 million people food insecure and in need of urgent food assistance in seven provinces (Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia).

The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with its nutrition partners, has devised an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan to scale-up nutrition services in the 6 affected provinces, focusing on accelerating nutritional screening and SAM/MAM treatment at community level. COSACA is a consortium comprised of Save the Children (designated as nutrition lead), Care, Concern and Oxfam. They comprise the bulk of the INGO emergency nutrition response in country and are poised to scale up their activities in the coming months with funding from OFDA, DFID and ECHO. CMAM programming in Mozambique is beset by numerous difficulties including supply chain bottlenecks, poor reporting at all levels, a low level of supportive supervision at health facilities offering both SC care and OTP/TSFP services, weak community outreach and a limited number of partner organisations with high level technical capacity for Nutrition in Emergencies.

 

A Tech RRT CMAM Advisor was deployed to strengthening the overall emergency nutrition response by building the capacity of response stakeholders in the design and delivery of CMAM programs, focusing particularly on an intensive community outreach component as well as provide a combination of technical training, strategic advice, and operational support on CMAM implementation and roll out to all cluster members (75%), with some specific additional support to COSACA agencies (25%).

 

Outcome:

  • Desk review from Emergency response in Mozambique from Google drive shared file and field visit finding report and recommendation shared with Nutrition cluster partners.
  • Additional tools, job Aids for CMAM in emergency were developed and shared with COSACA partners and Nutrition cluster for comment and review.
  • Screening tools for CV, Monitoring and Evaluation checklist for nutrition managers/officers and community mobilization engagement shared for comment and adaptation with Nutrition Cluster.
  • Power point presentation CMAM training tools for health/Nutrition staff produced and shared with COSACA members and Nutrition cluster coordinator.
  • Field visit and partially partners review meeting attended for Tete. Report produced and shared with NCC.
  • Technical Working Group Term of Reference developed and shared with Nutrition Cluster.