Project profile — Every Child Thrives in Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya

• Kenya (43.00%)
• Côte d'Ivoire (57.00%)

• Health, General: Health policy and administrative management (12110) (4.00%)
• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (42.00%)
Basic nutrition (12240) (42.00%)
Health education (12261) (8.00%)
Health personnel development (12281) (4.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• 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)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to serve children less than five years of age with vitamin A supplementation and de-worming programs in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. The mortality rate for children less than five years of age is 73/1000 live births in Kenya and 108/1000, in Côte d’Ivoire, in 2015. Vitamin A deficiency and worm infection causes and worsens malnutrition, anemia and diseases, particularly diarrheal diseases, which are a leading cause of death for children less than five years of age in these countries. Currently, these services are provided in both countries through schools, leaving children younger than five years unreached; a gap which this project is addressing. This project is providing improved delivery of these essential health services in communities where the actual coverage for children under five years of age is low. Project activities include: (1) increasing access to vitamin A and preventative de-worming treatments using existing community-based delivery systems; (2) strengthening the local health care system by training local health workers and community health volunteers in vitamin A supplementation and de-worming; (3) creating and utilizing a standardized toolkit for training on the implementation of responsive combined deworming and Vitamin A supplementation program targeting pre-school aged children; and (4) improving community engagement around vitamin A deficiency and de-worming in young children through responsive communication and engagement plans implementation as well as participatory activities with communities members, community leaderships and health structures and other gender equality and women’s groups. This project is implemented in six regions of Côte d'Ivoire (Gneby-Tiassa-Me, Bélier, Bounkani-Gontougo, Gbeke, Gôh and Indenie Duablin) and in three counties of Kenya (Siaya, Kwale and Kilifi). Effect : hope partners with Vitamin Angels, a US-based NGO, who also provides in-kind contributions of albendazole (de-worming treatments) and vitamin A supplements for the duration of the project. For the first three years of the Project in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire, the local implementing partner was the Medical Assistance Program (MAP) International. Due to a closure of MAP country offices, Helen Keller International will be implementing the project in both countries for the final year. This project directly impacts 1.8 million children and 16,600 adults working as community health workers or volunteers. It will also indirectly impact more than 5 million people who will benefit from positive outcomes on health in the community.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased capacity of health systems to deliver de-worming and vitamin A programs for children under five years; (2) increased provision of preventative de-worming treatments and vitamin A supplements to children under five years; (3) increased knowledge and community support for de-worming, vitamin A supplementation, and the promotion of women’s decision-making and male involvement to achieve positive maternal child health outcomes; and (4) programming that effectively addresses gender equality and inclusion barriers in combined de-worming and vitamin A supplementation programming.

Results achieved as of March 2020 include: (1) completed 14 mass drug administration campaigns in conjunction with the Ministries of Health in both Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. These campaigns provided 7,072,840 children under the age of five with vitamin A supplementation and deworming treatment; (2) trained 32,870 health system personnel, community health volunteers and teachers in combined Vitamin A Supplementation and deworming (VAS+D) treatment administration, data collection and gender equality; (3) involved health personnel and community members in drafting campaign preparation protocols, communications plans, and country-specific gender equality strategies for the project; (4) completed country specific gender equality strategies and county gender equality implementation plans for the project and used to guide project activities; and (5) adopted data collection tools that capture age, sex and disability data for children receiving nutritional and deworming services. Overall, the project promotes equal access to health interventions by all children, regardless of gender or ability level.

• Proactive disclosure