Project profile — Support to Child Survival

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Basic nutrition:
Basic nutrition (12240) (65.00%)
Health education (12261) (15.00%)
Health personnel development (12281) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to reduce the number of children who are sick and dying by improving the access of 2.2 million Ethiopian children to highly effective care to prevent and treat malnutrition. Despite recent progress, malnutrition remains a serious problem in Ethiopia, and many children do not regularly have enough nutritious food to keep them healthy. Malnutrition contributes to about half of all deaths of children under five years old. Activities include: (1) providing vitamin A supplements, which helps to ensure normal growth and development and to reduce infections and illness, and treatment for worms, which increases the ability to absorb essential nutrients for children under five years old; (2) training health workers at the community level to detect and treat severe acute malnutrition, and (3) treating severely malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in their own communities with special food. This project is part of Canada's commitment for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) better access of vulnerable children to preventative health care including provision of Vitamin A and deworming treatments, and malnutrition detection; and (2) better access to community health services to treat children with acute malnutrition.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (December 2016) include: Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM): (1) 365,357 children with severe acute malnutrition were admitted and treated in the target regions (significantly higher than the planned target of 58,000, considering the increased severe acute malnutrition cases due to the current drought); (2) 20,000 health workers were trained on management of severe acute malnutrition; and (3) nutrition officers were deployed in each region to strengthen the CMAM (632 facility-monitoring visits were conducted in Somali Region alone). As part of the Enhanced Outreach Strategy (implemented in Gambella and Somalia): (1) 830,000 children 6-59 months of age received two doses of vitamin A, representing 96% of the target population; (2) 512,000 children 24-59 months of age received de-worming treatments twice a year, representing 92% of the target population; and (3) 130,000 children 6-59 months of age and 121,000 pregnant and lactating women were screened for malnutrition. This represents 98% and 137% of the target populations, respectively. Target populations were based on administrative estimates by age group provided by Regional Health Bureaus. Health Extension Program (implemented in 100 districts in Oromia): (1) 1.5 million children 6-59 months of age received two doses of vitamin A, representing 95% of the target population; (2) 100% of districts always had stocks of ready-to-use therapeutic feeding; and (3) 6,000 health extension workers were trained on routine delivery of vitamin A supplements. An estimated total of 370,000 mothers and caregivers were reached through these materials. These results contributed to increased access and coverage for vulnerable children to vitamin A, deworming and malnutrition detection, as well as better access to community health services, to treat children with acute malnutrition in Ethiopia.

• Proactive disclosure