At the national level, the mandate of the Program is to increase access and demand for nutrition services and strengthen nutrition commodity management. In addition to cascading these activities at county levels, the program works with Feed the Future partners in the counties of Busia, Tharaka Nthi, Kitui, Samburu and Marsabit to improve food and nutrition security.In addition, the program is collaborating with other USAID Partners in the counties of Busia, Tharaka Nthi, Kitui and Samburu to implement maternal, ne wborn and child health activities that aim at ending preventable child and maternal deaths through ensuring a greater effect for women and children under two years with regards to nutrition. The program supports expansion of nutrition assessment counselling and support (NACS) services beyond HIV through provision of technical support to roll-out NACS to include High-Impact Nutrition Interventions (HiNi) to improve access and demand for quality nutrition interventions at community and facility levels. NHPplus engages with stakeholders to create a heightened profile for nutrition and strengthen budgeting, planning and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). It uses a multisectoral approach to integrate maternal, infant and young child nutrition with agrinutrition and WASH activities through the Baby Friendly Community Initiative. To strengthen nutrition commodity management, the program works to improve the outcomes of all interventions by ensuring efficiencies in nutrition commodity procurement, management and distribution while addressing quality control and safety of nutrition products procured through the program.

1. 415,808 clients reached with nutrition commodities

2. 137,459 pregnant women reached

3. 48,964 households reached with integrated nutrition-specific and sensitive package

4. 11,478 households screened at least twice a year

5. 6,941.764 metric tonnes of nutrition commodities distributed

6. 548 health facilities (central sites) provided with nutrition commodities

7. 171 demonstration gardens established

8. 3,026 hearth sessions (cooking demonstrations) conducted

9. Baby-Friendly Community Initiative activities established in five focus counties.

Program Context Launched in September 2014, Amashiga works in the Muyinga Province of Burundi to address the underlying causes of chronic malnutrition. According to the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, 66% of children in Muyinga suffered from chronic malnutrition for a variety of reasons, including poor infant and young child feeding practices, low agricultural productivity and small plot sizes (90% of Burundians engage in subsistence agriculture), lack of knowledge of improved hygiene and sanitation practices, and inequitable gender norms.
In response, CRS launched the Amashiga Program in consortium with International Medical Corps, Roseau Burundi 2000+. Organisation Diocesaine pour l’Entraide et le Developpement Integral de Muyinga, Bioversity International, the World Food Programme and Fond de Developpement Islamique de Muyinga. The USAID/FFP-supported program operates in all seven communes of Muyinga, across 230 hill communities. With the goal of leading sustainable, nationally replicable improvements in child nutrition, the program is designed around three integrated purposes – nutrition, agriculture, and governance – with CRS’ signature gender approaches implemented for cross-cutting impact.
To ensure sustainable change, the program supports the immediate nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and children under age 5 (CU5) while working to strengthen systems with leaders at the local, communal, and provincial levels. At the national level, Amashiga supported the Government of Burundi (GoB) to launch a national Fall Army Worm strategy drawing on expertise developed in Muyinga and in 2019, the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs, and Gender nationally validated Amashiga gender approaches for wider replication.
Amashiga leverages information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) including CommCare which enables field staff to scan uniquely coded ID cards at food distribution sites and enter data for remote analysis as well as ArcGIS which creates online maps to the activity level to inform programming decision-making.

1. HH access to nutritious food

2. Improved CU5 nutrition

3. Government & civil society nutrition leadership

4. CROSS-CUTTING: Joint decision-making

1. 142,584 households reached directly in FY18 across all 7 communes of Muyinga 

2. 427 lead mothers engaging over 12K PLW monthly in nutrition dialogues & cooking demonstrations

3. 191 producer organizations formalized into 14 sustainable agricultural cooperatives 

4. 1,202 SILC groups supported by 74 PSPs providing financial services and quality seeds 

5. 7 DRR & EWS Action Plans (1 per each commune in Muyinga) 

6. 3,746 trained model couples who have conducted over 61K house visits promoting joint decision-making

The region has been facing one of the worst dry spells following the failure of both the short and long rains, pushing many who are majorly pastoralists to neighbouring Counties counties and Countries in search for food, water and pasture. The nutrition situation in the County is deteriorating due to poor rainfall that affected regeneration of pasture for livestock which is the main economic activity in the County. Samburu County is experiencing a critical nutrition situation (Phase 4; GAM WHZ 15.0 – 29.9%) owing to food insecurity and compounded by poor access to health services due to closure of majority of the public health facilities.

The much-needed nutritional intervention was aimed at improving the health and nutritional status of communities through supplementary feeding to moderately malnourished children under the age of 5years, expectant women, and breastfeeding mothers in hard-to-reach areas of Samburu County.

The nutrition initiative, funded by Sternstunden through Amref Health Africa in Germany donated 4,231 25 kilogram bags of Corn, Soya Blend (CSB) fortified food with sugar which was distrusted to 3, 500 residents who are moderately acute malnourished children and pregnant & and lactating women. By the end of 2017 3,736 bags have were been distributed to 7,923 moderately acute malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women through Amref Health Africa, the Ministry of Health in Kenya and other partners supported outreaches in the three Sub counties. An additional 900 bags of CSB have been procured and delivered for distribution through integrated mass nutritional screening and outreaches in hard to reach remote areas of Samburu County.

1. 26, a casual labourer and a mother of two from Nomotio village is one of the beneficiaries of the drought response intervention Programme.

2. Improved nutritional status greatly for the Samburu county.

3. 2017 3,736 bags have were been distributed to 7,923 moderately acute malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women through Amref Health Africa, the Ministry of Health in Kenya and other partners supported outreaches in the three Sub counties

4. An additional 900 bags of CSB have been procured and delivered for distribution through integrated mass nutritional screening and outreaches in hard to reach remote areas of Samburu County.

THE CRISIS SITUATION
South Sudan is one of the world’s poorest countries. Since the end of 2013, it has been badly shaken by armed conflict. The civil war has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 3.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes and are either displaced within their own country or
living now in neighboring countries. Thousands were killed or wounded. In 2017, the ongoing conflict exacerbated what were already difficult conditions for fulfilling basic needs.
Those who left had to abandon their fields, unable to grow or harvest anything. Fearing attacks, most traders also avoid the areas of conflict. Local markets remain empty. Prices for basic foodstuffs, such as maize or beans, have increased markedly, making them unaffordable for many people. Because of the underdeveloped and damaged road network, 60 percent of the country is inaccessible during the rainy season.
Regular periods of drought have also led to food shortages and widespread hunger: according to UN estimates, 5.1 million people were dependent on food aid at the end of 2017

To bring about a long-term reduction in hunger in Gok State in South Sudan, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, together with its partner organization Vétérinaires Sans Frontières, is running a project, in which 15,000 school children receive a school meal every day. Without this, the children would have stopped coming to school long ago – for, in times of drought, parents must decide between food or schooling.

“My name is Awutchok Mayom Amhok, and I am 15 years old. I come from Mayenthon Payam in Ngap County in Gok State. I’m the second oldest in a family of seven children. Since we’ve been getting school meals, my friends and I go to school every day. And we’re always on time. It wasn’t always like this. We used to come late because we’d to wait at home until there was something to eat. Now, the school is always full. Lots of children from other schools come to us, since we’ve had school meals. Even children in my village, who stopped going to school, are coming again. Our school has many more children than before.
The teachers and cooks are very strict about us washing our hands before we eat. It’s something we do out of habit now. Apart from that, we tidy up all the rubbish and, together, keep the schoolyard tidy.”

1. SOUTH SUDAN Food security for 15,000 schoolchildren, Cash transfers for more than 124,000
people

2. SOMALIA Provision of drinking water to 58,000 people ++ 2,360 families receive vouchers to cover basic needs School attendance of 3,000
children.

3. ETHIOPIA Drinking water for more than 21,000 people  Food security for 6,000 pregnant women and children

4. KENYA Drinking water and water purification tablets for around 12,000 people

5. UGANDA Hygiene articles, kitchen utensils, water tanks and building material for emergency shelters for 27,000 people

The protracted civil wars in South Sudan have resulted in massive recruitment of children into the ranks of the armed forces and groups across the conflict prone areas of South Sudan. The former Pibor County was particularly severely affected, leading to massive disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration efforts targeting 3,000 children by UNICEF and its partners. From 2015 to 2018, VSF Germany helped release children from the Interim Care Centre (a half-way house) before tracing their families for reunification and supported the socio-economic reintegration of a total of 1,524 children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups. VSF Germany has further supported another 1,457 vulnerable children from the community to receive the same benefits as the released children. This is based on the Paris Principles of reintegration of released children.

Each child received two healthy female small ruminants of reproductive age, as well as small ruminant husbandry training, vaccination, treatment and linkage to veterinary care. In addition, the project has supported 700 children with 2 hens and 1 cock each, local chicken housing materials, poultry care training, vaccination, treatment and access to veterinary care. Animal ownership has improved the lives of these children who regard the ownership status as a source of prestige. This reintegration programme, therefore, is an example of how support can be culturally and economically sensitive. This has given the children hope for a brighter future as livestock owners bearing in mind that the dream of every pastoralist is animal ownership.

The animals also contribute immensely to the families‘ nutritional needs, as they are a source of eggs, milk and meat. In the course of these four years, the project contributed to improved access to food for the children and their families.

Up to 2,495 children have been supported with agricultural tools, seeds and training, and another 1,130 children and their caregivers received fishing nets, twines, hooks and training in fishing. Both the released and the vulnerable children have been empowered with basic livelihood skills focusing in the areas of training of bee keeping, bread baking, tea shops and dabo making, fish and milk preservation, as well as production of re-usable sanitary pads. The skills chosen for training were based on a contextual awareness of where there might be openings for business opportunities. Such training is often accompanied by the relevant start-up kits. 179 children have been further supported with basic business, literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to better run their various economic and vocational enterprises.

Apart from livelihood skills, VSF Germany has continued to provide vocational training to released and vulnerable children. Training focused on welding, motor vehicle mechanics, brick making, tailoring, electrical and solar installation, carpentry, masonry, photography, borehole pump maintenance as well as hair and beauty. Up to 112 children have benefitted from the training. They also received the respective start-up kits. 54 of the released children were also trained as community animal health workers (CAHWs) with support from both UNICEF and FAO. These children have since been assimilated into the wider VSF Germany network of community animal health workers and presently earn a livelihood from the vaccination and cost recovery treatment of animals programme.

1. Improved Nutrition through the School-Feeding Programme

“Nyanpath is a 12-year-old girl, residing in Cueibet County in Gok State. As a girl in her community, Nyanpath shares the daily household chores such as washing utensils and clothes before taking the kilometer-long walk to school. With 7 other siblings, she makes sure she takes the additional responsibility of walking the younger siblings to school as well as watching over them throughout the day. For Nyanpath, the school-feeding program goes beyond providing her immediate nutritional needs.”

2.  Zero Poverty

3.  Economic Growth –