Standard Project Report 2016
Government— specifically the Department of Health Services, the Department of Family Planning, national nutrition services and community clinics— through a closure workshop at which an action plan for the way forward was formulated. In Kurigram, the previous cooperating partner, Terre des Hommes, continued to monitor nutrition status. The Government does not intend to scale up the nutrition programme nationally.
The MAM prevention programme for vulnerable populations among undocumented Myanmar nationals in Cox’ s Bazar district started in February 2016 in the Kutupalong makeshift camp. The start of the same programme in the Leda makeshift site began in December when the delayed clinic construction was completed. The delay postponed enrolment processes, collection of beneficiary numbers and reduced the coverage of eligible beneficiaries. Conversely, the number of pregnant and lactating women( PLW) was higher because of demographic underestimations at the planning stage and the significant influx of people from Myanmar, beginning in the final quarter of the year.
The four treatment performance indicators reported— recovery rate, defaulter rate, mortality rate and non-response rate— all met the target values as outlined by SPHERE. Additionally, MAM treatment recovery and defaulter rates showed a slight improvement from last year. The reason for the lowered default rate was likely a result of increased efforts to keep beneficiaries in treatment; specifically, better tracking of absences, home visits for absentees, collection of mobile phone numbers to follow up with absent participants and counselling for caregivers and family members on the importance of finishing treatment.
Though still above targeted values, IMCN performance indicators in Cox’ s Bazar district were worse than in other implementation areas. This could be attributed to challenges in access following cyclone Roanu’ s impact on the Moheshkhali sub-district, which resulted in increased absenteeism and defaulting, higher reported illnesses, difficulties in conducting courtyard sessions and cluster screenings and waterlogged clinics. Mitigation measures were taken to reduce the negative effect as much as possible, including making an adjustment of the distribution schedule, adding distribution days for absent beneficiaries, conducting household visits in the affected areas and increasing screening in the affected areas for early detection of undernutrition.
In 2015, the coverage for MAM treatment was reported by a Semi-Quantitative Evaluation of Access and Coverage( SQUEAC) survey. However with the latest planned SQUEAC survey to be conducted in March 2017, the data was not available at the time of reporting. Similarly, the participation rate for MAM prevention is pending nutrition surveys to be conducted in January / February 2017.
MAM treatment and prevention beneficiaries were provided with nutrition education and counselling as well as a nutritious food rations. Pregnant and lactating women and caregivers of children aged 6-59 months received nutrition counselling at the health facilities each time they collected their rations of specialised nutritious foods( typically distributed fortnightly) as well as during household visits. Courtyard sessions were measured by the output of‘ number of men or women exposed to nutrition messaging supported by WFP’ and had good levels of achievement, though additional efforts should be made to engage men in these sessions. This good result is attributed mostly to a mass campaign in Kurigram in the first quarter of the year as well as new community nutrition volunteers added to the Moheshkhali sub-district in the last quarter based on an analysis of behaviour change communication conducted in June 2016.
Programme monitoring surveys showed that 87 percent reported exclusively breastfeeding their infants up to six months, which is much higher than the set target, last year’ s data and the national average( 55 percent). The proportion of children aged 6-23 months who receive foods from four or more food groups was 81 percent, was also higher than the target and last year. However, these findings may be more reflective of knowledge of IMCN guidelines and the best way to respond to surveys, rather than practice.
A few facilities were activated this year that were not foreseen in the planning, resulting in a slight over-achievement in the number of health centres / sites assisted. WFP provided most of the planned training to health service providers in Kurigram and Satkhira districts.
Component 2: School feeding Strategic Objective 4: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger. Outcome: Increased equitable access to and utilization of education.
WFP increased its school feeding coverage, leading to more primary schools and more schoolchildren reached when compared to last year and a 174 percent achievement against the plan. Increased coverage is mostly due to the addition of new schools in the Gaibandha district( located in the Rangpur division of northern Bangladesh) in August through a United States Department of Agriculture( USDA) McGovern-Dole school feeding grant as well as the students who received a take-home ration of dried fruits( dates), donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The McGovern-Dole grant gave schools not yet covered under the Government’ s school feeding programme the opportunity to be assisted, thus increasing the number of schools against the plan.
Bangladesh, People ' s Republic of( BD) 20 Country Programme- 200243