In order to accelerate response for the prevention of chronic undernutrition in Mozambique, the government, has elaborated a Multisectoral Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic undernutrition in Mozambique for the period of 2011-2015. It aims to accelerate the reduction of chronic undernutrition in children under 5 years of age from 44% in 2008 to 30% in 2015 and 20% in 2020, contributing to the reduction of infant morbidity mortality and ensuring the development of a healthy and active society. The Plan identifies seven strategic objectives, each with expected outcomes and activities: (i) to strengthen activities with impact on the nutritional status of adolescents, (ii) to strengthen interventions with impact on the health and nutrition of women of reproductive age before and during pregnancy and lactation, (iii) to strengthen nutrition activities for children in the first two years, (iv) to strengthen household oriented activities to improve access and utilization of foods with a high nutritional value, (v) to strengthen the Human Resources capacity in the area of nutrition, (vi) to strengthen the national capacity for advocacy, coordination, management and progressive implementation of the Multisectoral Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Undernutrition, (vii) to strengthen the food and nutrition surveillance system. In order to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, the following activities and interventions are planned by the action plan: (i) to carry out research on the nutritional value of agriculture products (including wild foods) and promotion of foods with high nutritional value, (ii) to promote the production of foods with a high nutritional value through the agriculture extension system, (iii) to promote nutrition education and food preparation demonstrations (including food processing) as part of the agriculture extension system, (iv) to build the capacity of households' members on improved practices of food processing and storage, including hygiene and food security, (v) the community mobilization for construction of latrine and their adequate utilization Promotion of good hygiene practices through lectures and theatres on personal hygiene and (vi) to develop training materials and capacity building methods in nutrition services for health, food security and education staff at provincial and district levels. In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the plan envisages providing subsidies necessary for animal breeding (cages, eggs, hens, chick feed, among others) to adolescents with children and technical assistance for animal breeding. Regarding the reduction of rural poverty, the plan will provide on-the-job training courses on nutrition to health, food security and education sectors staff, Carry out on-the-job capacity building training for nurses and midwives in Health Units and will provide financial support for small animal breeding to low-income households with female adolescents in order to increase spacing between pregnancies and ensure that adolescents do not get pregnant during the adolescence period. To enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the plan will increase the availability of good quality iodized salt in the market. For this purpose, the following activities are planned: (i) to increase salt regulation in the market and industries, including penalties in case of infringements, (ii) to support to producers to ensure salt is iodized. In the context of governance, this action plan contains a monitoring and evaluation plan that aims at providing consistent and reliable information on the progress of the implementation of the Action Plan for the reduction of chronic undernutrition. Since this is a multisectoral plan and it depends on the implementation of many other plans, especially the integrated Plan for Attaining the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, the M&E plan includes data collection on the progress of a number of plans from the health sector and other sectors. Specific objectives of the M&E plan for the Action Plan are: (i) to guide data collection, processing and analysis of selected indicators, (ii) to monitor activities implementation in accordance with the operational plan to ensure reporting and accountability as well as timely resolution of problems that may occur during the implementation, (iii) to provide feedback to those who implement and manage the plan to ensure they have timely information for decision-making, (iv) to document regularly the results achieved against the targets, (v) to serve as guide for national authorities and partners on the response of programs and services under implementation aimed at accelerating the reduction of chronic undernutrition, (vi) to promote evaluation and research activities aimed at improving performance of the Multisectorial Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Undernutrition.
Mozambique · 2011-01-01