Amref Health Africa (Amref) reaches over 10 million people in more than 30 countries across the continent. It reaches vulnerable populations with community-based health interventions, water and sanitation services, and disease prevention services, but frequently, nutrition interventions are not included in these services.
On the demand and service delivery side, target populations that are being missed, or are not receiving optimal nutrition services, include infants and young children, adolescents, and mothers. While on the supply side, Amref is training health workers at all levels – national, pre-service, in-service and community-based – but nutrition content in many cases is absent.
In addition, Amref is a strong advocate for health; but lack or have minimal internal capacity to advocate for improved nutrition services through their health programs. The N-LIFT investment will address these gaps through the guidance of a seconded senior Nutrition Technical Advisor (NTA) from NI.
To contribute to improved health and nutrition among women, children and adolescent girls in Africa.
Location/Region:
Kenya, Senegal, South Sudan, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda
Project Duration:
2 Years
Donor:
Government of Canada
Collaborating Partners:
Ministries of Health (MOH), Ministries of Education, Ministries of Agriculture and Ministries/Departments of Water and Sanitation in target countries as well as Amref Country Offices.
Systematic integration of nutrition in Amref Health Africa programs and countries.
Improved access to quantity, quality and timeliness of the provision of nutrition interventions to Amref health Africa target groups- adolescent girls, Women of Reproductive Age and children based on gaps identified during the mapping exercise.
Increased demand/uptake of nutrition interventions by adolescent girls, Women of Reproductive Age and children in communities based on gaps identified during the mapping exercise.
The first phase of the project has three major activities:
- Conducting a comprehensive nutrition mapping across Amref programs;
- Conducting a capacity assessment of Amref’ s staff current knowledge in nutrition at all levels and
- Developing an organizational nutrition strategy for successful nutrition integration and aligning it to the Amref global strategy 2018 -2022.
Nutrition mapping exercise conducted and finalised in 5 of the 9 Amref Health Africa Country offices (Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya). The mapping exercise identified 37 projects (3-Senegal, 4-Tanzania, 5-Uganda, 3-South Sudan and 22-Kenya) as projects that have potential for integrating nutrition interventions.
Knowledge and capacity assessment on essential nutrition actions for Amref Health Africa field staff and senior managers carried out in 5 out of 9 Amref country offices (Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya) to identify nutrition capacity needs and gaps. A total of 82 field staff were assessed in the four countries (16-Tanzania, 11-Senegal, 11-Uganda, 8-South Sudan and 36-Kenya. The results were integrated in the country reports.
2 out of 3 Amref platforms have been assessed to identify the levels of nutrition integration.