Project profile — Integrated Approach to Improve Nutrition in the Kolda and Kédougou Regions

• Senegal (100.00%)

• Basic Education: Early childhood education (11240) (2.00%)
• Health, General: Health policy and administrative management (12110) (8.00%)
• Basic nutrition:
Basic nutrition (12240) (50.00%)
Health education (12261) (2.00%)
• Reproductive health care:
Reproductive health care (13020) (3.00%)
Family planning (13030) (2.00%)
• Banking And Financial Services: Informal/semi-formal financial intermediaries (24040) (3.00%)
• Food crop production:
Food crop production (31161) (17.00%)
Livestock (31163) (3.00%)
Agricultural extension (31166) (10.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (principal objective)
• 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)
• Nutrition (principal objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)

This project aims to improve the nutritional security of populations living in the Kolda and Kédougou regions by focussing on preventing new cases of malnutrition, especially amongst women and young children. These regions show malnutrition rates significantly higher than the national average, resulting in child mortality rates twice as high as the national average. The project seeks to reduce malnutrition by adopting an integrated approach consisting of the following three components: (1) promote better nutrition practices for vulnerable populations; (2) support communities in the production of more nutritious food; and (3) strengthen the capacity of the government at the local, regional and national levels to deliver nutrition or nutrition-sensitive programmes. Project activities include: (1) train and provide equipment to 1,775 health workers to deliver behaviour change communication messages on appropriate nutritional practices to approximately 35,000 influential in household food consumption decision-making (mainly women); (2) support the development and delivery of community services related to maternal and child nutrition to 31,000 pregnant and lactating women and approximately 50,500 children under five; (3) implement community initiatives to improve the production and distribution of nutrient-rich food by 30,000 households, including training on good agricultural practices and support to the development of local entrepreneurship; and (4) train and provide equipment to local and regional government structures leading to a better inclusion of nutrition issues in the design, implementation, coordination and monitoring of development plans.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved nutrition practices, particularly for women and young children; (2) increased availability of micronutrient-rich food, particularly for women and young children; and (3) improved management of nutrition components in Government of Senegal plans and programmes.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2020) include: (1) the percentage of children between ages of 6 to 59 months benefiting from active screening for acute malnutrition in Kédougou increased from 20% in 2015 to approximately 80% in 2020, with 97,834 children screened; (2) 1,172 women obtained credit for the production of micronutrient-rich foods, and 33 small and medium-sized enterprises had access to credit to produce these foods; (3) 175 auxiliaries of decentralized technical services (of which 95 from agriculture and 80 from livestock) trained and equipped to provide support and advice to vulnerable households. As a result of these trainings, the auxiliaries participated in the monitoring and supervision of 5,550 vulnerable households and organized 99 radio programs on good agricultural and livestock practices for the decentralized services; and (4) 640 village savings and credit associations are functional, with savings of 137,944,100 FCFA.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: Integrated Approach to Improve Nutrition in the Kolda and Kédougou Regions - Monitoring