Project profile — Building Back Essential Nutrition Services in Bangladesh during COVID-19

• Bangladesh (100.00%)

• Basic nutrition:
Basic nutrition (12240) (50.00%)
Infectious disease control (12250) (50.00%)

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

This project aims to reduce the nutritional vulnerability of children under the age of five (boys and girls), adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in three districts of Bangladesh by building back the coverage and quality of nutrition services to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic situation. Bangladesh’s health systems and nutrition services are significantly affected by COVID-19. This project adopts a community-based preventive approach to address the root causes of malnutrition. Project activities include: (1) strengthening health care provider’s capacity to provide quality nutrition services to boys and girls under the age of five, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in the context of COVID-19 through training; (2) procuring essential nutrition supplies, equipment and tools for health facilities; (3) strengthening community-based volunteers and support groups’ capacity to undertake community mobilization, awareness-raising and communication campaigns to access nutrition services and support preventive measures for malnutrition; (4) strengthening adolescent clubs and their leaders’ capacity to provide simple nutrition counselling and distribute iron folic acid among adolescent girls; and (5) increasing advocacy on preventive measures to protect boys’ and girls’ nutrition under the age of five, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and severe acute malnutrition treatment using local therapeutic foods. The project expects to directly benefit 350,000 people (of which 50% women/girls), including 161,500 children under the age of five, 83,000 pregnant and lactating women, 106,000 adolescent girls and 450 children with severe acute malnutrition.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened the Habiganj and Bagerhat Districts’ health facilities’ effectiveness to provide services for the prevention of malnutrition among children under the age of five, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers during COVID-19; (2) strengthened community-based measures to improve nutrition services coverage among children under the age of five, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers in the Habiganj and Bagerhat Districts and generated evidence on the effectiveness of locally produced therapeutic foods to treat severe acute malnourished children in Cox’s Bazaar; and (3) increased advocacy on preventive measures to protect children’s nutrition under the age of five, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers and severe acute malnutrition treatment using local therapeutic foods.

Results achieved as of December 2022 include: (1) provided infant young child feeding (IYCF) counselling to 92% of pregnant and lactating women and caregivers of children from 0 to 23 months who were registered at the health facilities. This exceeded the target of 50%; (2) organized 4 antenatal care visits to 67% of registered pregnant women, surpassing the target of 60%; (3) provided key maternal nutrition services from health facilities to 55,435 pregnant women; (4) screened 156,139 children and admitted 420 children (275 girls and 145 boys) to health facilities for treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM); (5) trained 16,472 health providers and managers on comprehensive competency-based nutrition; (6) provided iron folic acid (IFA), deworming tablets, essential nutrition supplies and commodities to 145 health facilities; (7) provided iron-folic acid to 163,204 adolescent girls; and (8) provided 140 out of 165 health facilities (85%) with communication materials and job aids for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN). This includes 123 community clinics, 34 family welfare centers, and 8 union sub-centers in Habiganj and Bagerhat (Khulna) districts.

• Proactive disclosure