Today, the world faces a double burden of malnutrition, with almost three billion people suffering from either undernutrition or overweight and obesity (FAO 2013). No country is untouched.
The 2013 Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) for Nigeria found that infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices remain suboptimal in Nigeria. Among other findings, only 17.4% of children under six months old are exclusively breastfeed, and only 35.3% of mothers are continuing breastfeeding at two years. Child nutrition outcomes are often poor, with the rate of wasting among children under five years old at 18.0% and the rate of stunting at 36.8%.
UNICEF, the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), and SPRING carried out an evaluation of the Community Infant and Young Child Feeding (C-IYCF) Counselling Package in Nigeria. In September 2017, two SPRING staff members and one consultant traveled to Nigeria.
Global Nutrition Report, November 2017.
FAO, October 2017.
In May and June 2017, SPRING/Senegal organized capacity building workshops for community video hubs to equip them to independently produce videos after the end of the project. During two workshops, video production teams learned to use Adobe Premiere Pro video production software. The nine video hub members each received a laptop, a digital camera, a one year subscription to Adobe Premiere Pro Creative Cloud, and other video accessories.
Anemia remains a severe public health problem in Ghana, with 65.7% of children under five and 42.4% of women in reproductive age (WRA) suffering from anemia, according to the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey report (GDHS). The Northern Region is more severely affected, with 82.1% and 47.5%, respectively, of children under five and WRA suffering from anemia.
Women's economic empowerment directly improves the family’s nutritional status. Village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) are community-managed groups aimed at empowering community members economically by providing them with a designated safe place to save their money and routine access to small loans and emergency insurance.
SPRING/Ghana conducted a training of trainers (ToT) workshop for district-level trainers from seven districts—East Gonja, Tolon, Central Gonja, Tatale, Mion, Bawku West, and Kumbungu— in Ghana’s Northern Region to implement the District Assessment Tool for Anemia (DATA). The DATA is a tool to assess the anemia situation and strengthen programming at the district level.
SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic provided support and technical assistance to the national deworming working group to update the national clinical protocol on deworming and to update strategies and communications materials for future deworming campaigns and helminth infection prevention initiatives.