Nutrition Programme to improve the lives of children and women in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan

In South Sudan, malnutrition rates are chronically at emergency levels, leading to worse health and increased susceptibility to diseases like malaria and other major common childhood killers. Malaria Consortium is running an innovative programme where treatment for malnutrition is provided alongside integrated community case management (ICCM) for malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia for children under five years. This emergency nutrition programme in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State treats children for severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition at community level under the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme. The nutrition programme builds on an already established community structure for ICCM that refers children for treatment to community-based outpatient therapeutic treatment sites, run by volunteer community nutrition workers. For very severe cases, children are further referred to stabilisation centres at the State Hospital for management.