JANUARY - MARCH,2014

Yemen Nutrition Cluster

Bulletin,#4/2014

The nutrition response plan in 2014 has

the following five objectives:

1. Improve equitable access to quali-

ty lifesaving therapeutic and reha-

bilitative nutrition interventions for

acute malnourished girls and boys

under five and Pregnant and Lac-

tating Women (PLW)

2. Improve institutional infrastructure,

system, and national human re-

source capacity of MOPHP, and

non-governmental organizations

to ensure effective, efficient and

coherent, decentralized nutrition

response

3. Prevent development of under

nutrition among girls, boys under

five and Pregnant and Lactating

Women (PLW) in priority gover-

norates

4. To ensure a predictable, coher-

ent, timely, and effective nutrition

response through establishing and

maintaining partnership among

nutrition actors in the country and

timely flow of updated nutrition

information

5. Enhance national and internation-

al efforts to address long term

nutrition concerns (such as chron-

ic malnutrition).

A comprehensive analysis of the

recent nutrition survey findings

across Yemen shows an estimated

1,060,000 girls and boys 6-59

months are acute malnourished in

2014. About 280,000 are severe

acute malnourished. These children

have heightened risk of death than

healthy children. If left untreated

acute malnutrition can have debilitat-

ing consequences such as impaired

physical growth and cognitive devel-

opment.

In addition to child undernutrition,

maternal malnutrition is a major

problem in Yemen. An estimated

760,000 pregnant and lactating

women continue to suffer from under

nutrition.

Critical and serious emergency level

acute malnutrition among children

under age of five is experienced in

most parts of the country. However

severity of acute malnutrition varies

across governorates in the country

with considerable proportion of Chil-

dren 6-59 months in governorate in

North and South West coastal areas

suffering most. Children in 107 dis-

tricts from Hodeida, Hajjah, Ray-

mah,Lahj, Al Jawf, Taize ,Abyan,

Aden and Sa’ada, governorates are

in critical emergency nutrition situa-

tion. Forty-six districts from Al Dhale,

Amran, some parts of Jahj and Al

Mahaweet governorates are catego-

rized in serious nutritional

emergency situation. The acute

malnourished children in critical

and serious regions represent

about 70% of the total caseload

in the country. It was also ob-

served that densely populated

districts in urban areas such as

Sana’a and Mukalla have very

high case load of acute mal-

nourished children although the

malnutrition levels are not either

in critical or serious category.

The nutrition cluster targeted

districts in critical and serious

category as well as districts

with very high case load (higher

than the average caseload per

district in critical areas) even

though malnutrition levels are in

‘poor’ category. In 2014 emer-

gency response cluster part-

ners aims to cover roughly 70

% of the population in need with

life-saving therapeutic nutrition

interventions and about 30%

with supplementary nutrition

interventions. In addition vulner-

able children 6-59 months,

pregnant and lactating women

in high priority districts are tar-

geted for preventive interven-

tions. The partners’ implemen-

tation capacity was taken into

consideration while setting

targets both for the life-saving

and preventive interventions.

Overview of Yemen Nutri�on Situa�on and 2014 Response Plan

Inside this issue:

Overview of Yemen Nutrition Needs in Yemen

1

Nutrition Need ,Targets and Funding in 2014

1

Nutrition Cluster: Anal-ysis of geographic prioritization 2014

2

Nutrition Cluster Re-sponse January—March 2014

2

CMAM program Con-sultative workshop and Way forward

3

Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Up-date

3

Nutrition cluster coordi-nation update

4

Upcoming Events 4

Key Contacts 4

Nutrition Needs ,Target and Funding in 2014

Requirement's & Funding

Figure1:NutritionNeedsandResponsePlanin2014

YEMEN NUTRITION CLUSTER JANUARY– MARCH, 2014. PAGE 2

997,804

Nutrition Cluster: Analysis of geographic prioritization January 2014

Governorate Name GAM

Ibb Eastern Highlands 7.6%

Ibb Western Highlands 8.6%

Abyan (Affected districts: Lawdar, Zunjubar and Khan-

far) 16.1%

Abyan (Non-affected dis-

tricts) 11.3%

Sanaa City 9.7%

Al Bayda 6.3%

Taiz Coastal 15.1%

Taiz Mountaines 9.4%

Hajjah Coastal 21.6%

Hajjah mountaines 9.3%

Hudeida 31.7%

Hadramout 9.9%

Dhamar Eastern 4.9%

Dhamar Western 9.2%

Shabwa 8.2%

Sana'a 7.4%

Aden Interior 21.0%

Aden Exterior 17.8%

Lahj coastal 23.0%

Lahej mountaines 14.3%

Mareb 6.4%

Al Mahweet LowLand 12.9%

Al Mahweet Highland 9.9%

Al Mahra 8.2%

Amran 10.2%

Ad Daleh 12.1%

Rayma 18.3%

NUTRITION CLUSTER RESPONSE (JANUARY – March 2014)

In the last three months nutrition cluster partners have reached 115,982 children Acutely Malnourished

through therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs (SFP). To prevent further deterioration of

nutritional status of children 6 - 24 months a total of 84,410 Children at risk and/or suffering from acute

malnutrition have received blanket supplementary feeding.

A total of 1312 OTP (Outpatient Therapeutic Program) and 588 SFP (Supplementary Feeding Pro-

gram) facilities has been operational in the last three months. About 71% of the OTPs and 86% of the

SFP are located in Critical and Serious nutritional emergency governorates where about 70% the case

load of acute malnutrition is concentrated. Overall the distribution of geographic coverage of acute

malnutrition treatment facilities (OTPs and SFPs) indicates a better geographic prioritization and target-

ing has been exercised in the 2014 nutrition response planning and implementation.

A better performance of treatment of severe acute malnutrition has been achieved in the first quarter of

the year. The cure rate in OTPs in the last three months has been 70% while defaulter rate was 28%.

Although the Cure rate and Defaulter are below the SPHERE minimum standard ( > 75% Cure rate

and <15% defaulter rate ),significant improvement as compared to same period last year has been

seen. The improvement in monitoring and supervision of health facilities and ongoing capacity building

of MOPHP health facility staff and community volunteers have contributed for the better performance

in case management in OTPs.

Shortage of funding for expanding and continued provision of nutrition services has been a major chal-

lenge in the first quarter. Only 10% of the total required funding has been secured by end of March

2014. In the months to come cluster partners continue to provide emergency nutrition services with available resources. The nutrition situation will be

monitored through follow up SMART nutrition surveys which will be conducted in high caseload governorates such as Hodeida, Taize, and Hajja. The

findings of the survey will be used to revise the expected caseload in the governorates.

Figure3:JA

NUARY–March

2013(OTP

Performance)

Figure4:JA

NUARY–March

2014(OTP

Performance)

Figure2:AnalysisofgeographicprioritizationJanuary2014

JANUARY –MARCH, 2013. PAGE 3

CMAM program Consultative workshop and Way forward

YEMEN NUTRITION CLUSTER JANUARY– MARCH, 2014. PAGE 3

997,804

690,918

The humanitarian situation following the 2011 Arab spring uprising created an oppor-

tunity to unveil the magnitude and severity of malnutrition and need for urgent and ex-

tensive response in Yemen. Since 2011 the management of moderate and severe acute

malnutrition through a CMAM approach was scaled to magnificent level reaching about

30% of fixed health facilities in Yemen. Mobile facilities providing CMAM services

reached over 250 by end of 2013.

Through the collective efforts of nutrition partners by 2013 over 1350 CMAM sites (580

with SFP and OTP), as well as 28 SCs have been established. Over 4000 Community

volunteers, and about 2500 health workers were trained in components of CMAM. As a

result over half a million children under five with acute malnutrition have gotten treat-

ment services in the last two years.

Although scale up CMAM services has been a considerable stride made in ensuring

access to management of acute malnutrition services, the performance of therapeutic

and supplementary feeding programs has always fall short of the minimal acceptable

standards such as SPHERE. The overall recovery rate by end of 2013 was 62%, while

defaulter rate was 34%. To date generally speaking the CMAM program in Yemen hasn’t reached to expected level of effectiveness and coverage.

Hence all nutrition actors in the country should explore ways of meeting the needs of over a million children acute malnourished through effective

CMAM services.

CMAM program Consultative workshop was organised to review lesson learned in CMAM implementation in the last couple of years, and come up

with action plan that will improve effectiveness and coverage of the program. The workshop was conducted in Sana’a on 9th and 10th of February

2014.MOPHP Nutrition department, GOPHP Nutrition directors and Director Generals, and Nutrition cluster partners participated in the workshop.

By the end of the workshop an action plan was drawn which consist of key activities that should be carried out in the rest of the year to improve the

CMAM program effectiveness and coverage. Detailed Proceeding Report and Agreed action Plan is available on Yemen nutrition cluster website .

Yemen Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Update

1. Situation and causal analysis to better under-stand the dynamics of nutrition and malnutrition in Yemen

2. Response analysis reflecting on intervention strategies available for implementation in Yem-en to identify the most effective intervention approaches and thus investment priorities

3. Development of a national action/investment plan with associated budget. This plan will recog-nize the core priorities as well as complementary activities

It was anticipated that a budgeted action plan will

have been available at the end of March 2014 for

consideration in sectorial plans and budgets during

the new government planning cycle.

UN partners are working with MOPIC to establish a

program unit in MOPIC for Scaling up Nutrition in

Yemen, the unit will be responsible for a) overall coor-

dination at international, national and subnational

levels, b) resource mobilization and resource man-

agement and c) extensive monitoring and evaluations

of the programs including information management.

Nutrition cluster partners (national and International

NGOs,MOPHP and UN agencies) are actively partici-

pating in the SUN coordination forums to contribute

to efforts of the steering committee and technical

advisory group. Further information available on.

Www.scalingupnutrition.org/

Contact : Fakre Alam (falam@unicef.org).,Iqbal

kabir ,ikabir@unicef.org

Scaling Up Nutrition, or SUN, is a unique Movement founded on the principle that all people have a right to food and good nutrition. It unites people—from govern-ments, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers—in a collective effort to improve nutrition. Within the SUN Movement, national lead-ers are prioritising efforts to address mal-nutrition. Countries are putting the right policies in place, collaborating with part-ners to implement programmes with shared nutrition goals, and mobilising resources to effectively scale up nutrition, with a core focus on empowering women. With a shared understanding that many factors impact nutrition, each of us has a unique contribution to make. Together we are achieving what no one of us can do alone.

The Government of Yemen joined the SUN Movement in November 2012 and appointed the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) as the SUN Focal Point. In April 2013, the Minis-try of Population & Public Health present-ed to the cabinet the situation of malnutri-tion in children and women in Yemen, following which the Prime Minister ad-vised key ministries to develop an inte-grated multi-sectoral response plan to combat the situation and establish a tech-nical consultation platform to support it; MOPIC has been assigned the responsi-bility of the convening and coordinating

the movement and its consultation platform.

The UK Department for International Devel-opment (DFID), acting as the SUN Donor Convener, coordinates donor agencies in country. UN Partners convene in support of the SUN movement, while civil society is also organizing itself behind the govern-ment’s plans and objectives. The business community is increasingly engaged in this collective effort to scale up nutrition. The SUN steering committee, established by decree from the Minister of MoPIC, con-vened its first meeting in July, chaired by the Vice Minister. The committee comprises of key Ministries such as Public Health and Population, Education, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water & Environment and Communication, UN organizations – UNICEF, WFP, WHO, UNDP and FAO, Donors – UK AID, USAID, WB, EU, Academia - University of Sana`a, Private Sector (representative of chamber of commerce) and Civil Society Organizations. The steering committee will convene regular meetings, while a smaller technical advisory group is more frequently convened by MoP-IC

Towards the development of this priority investment plan, and upon specific request from the Minister of MoPIC, the international SUN secretariat has mobilized technical expertise to help the Yemen steering com-mittee and technical advisory group in the following:

Figure 5: CMAM Workshop Feb 2014

UPCOMINGEVENTS

◊ SMARTNutritionSurveywillbeconduct-

edinTaizegovernorateinApril2014.

◊ HajjagovernorateSMARTNutritionSur-

veywillbecarriedoutfromMidMay

2014.

◊ IMCwillstartconductinganutritioncaus-

alanalysis(NCA)studyandMicronutrient

LandscapeanalysisinthemonthofMay

◊ WFPincollaborationwithMOPHPand

NutritionClusterwilltrain6ieldMonitors

inHodeidastartingfrommidMay.

◊ ACFincollaborationwithUNICEFand

MOPHPconductsSQUEACCoverageas-

sessmentinHodedida(inApril)andHaj-

jaagovernorates(inMay).

WE’RE ON THE WEB! https://sites.google.com/site/yemennutritioncluster/

Key Contacts

Nutrition cluster coordination update

YEMEN NUTRITION CLUSTER JANUARY– MARCH, 2014. PAGE 4

National Field Level

Anteneh Gebremichael Nutrition Cluster Coordinator

E-mail: adobamo@unicef.org

Phone:+967 712223047

Fax:+967 1 206092

Lenna Abdullah Head of Nutrition Department

E-mail: eryan_7@yahoo.com

Phone:+967 770991735

Fax:+967 1 239211

Shabib Al Qobati Information Management Officer

E-mail: shabib.cs@gmail.com

Phone:+967 777929456

Fax:+967 1 206092

Gamilah Hibatullah Aden Sub Cluster Coordinator

E-mail: ghibatullah@unicef.org

Phone:+967 712223019

Rasha Al-Ardi Hodaydah Sub Cluster Coordinator

E-mail: ralardi@unicef.org

Phone:+967 712223014

Nagiba Al-Mahdi Taizz Sub Cluster Coordinator

E-mail: nalmahdi@unicef.org

Phone:+967 712223018

Senan Alajel Sa’ada Sub Cluster Coordinator

E-mail: salajel@unicef.org

Phone:+967 712223401

nutrition survey and SQUEAC coverage

assessments was finalized by end of Febru-

ary. A quarterly Assement plan with input

from all partners was shared so that Assess-

ments are well coordinated ,dipulication is

avoided and resources are used rationally.

• Participation in North task force – NC

was actively participating in OCHA led task

force focusing on coordinating lifesaving

activities in conflict affected areas of the

north ( Sa’ada, Parts of Hajja and Amran).

The task force is taked with closely monitor-

ing the situation, develop contingency and

response plan in the affected areas.

• CMAM Training Package launch – A

Yemen CMAM training package which was

developed by WFP,UNICEF and MOPHP in

consultation with national and international

NGOs was launched in March. The package

is available both in English and Arabic. The

whole training package is meant to be cov-

ered in 8 days session.

• Yemen CMAM Interim Guidelines fina-

lization – MOPHP designated technical expert reviewed and validated the Interim

CMAM guidelines for Yemen. The Interim

guidelines is awaiting the final endorsement

from MOPHP.

The nutrion cluster (NC) in Yemen constutes a

partnership of over thirty organizations including

ministry of health, national and international

NGOs, and UN agencies. Donor agencies also

take part in coordination forum. Through four

zonal hubs at Aden, Hodeida, Taize and Sa’ada,

governorate level coordination has been taking

place. The zonal hubs cover two or more neigh-

boring governorates.

In the last three months the following were

achieved

• Three coordination meetings at national

level conducted. Three in Hodei-

da,Hajja,Aden, and Taize.

• Introduction of New reporting format

and Database – MOPHP nutrition depart-

ment introduced a new comprehensive

reporting format for nutrition activities which

is deigned to capture data on

OTP,SFP,SC,IYCF, Micronutrient supple-

mentation and MUAC screening. Within the

same one sheet format CMAM supplies can

be monitored. A database was created by

NC information management officer inline

with the new reporting format. Nutrition clus-

ter conducted orientation workshops in Aden

and Hodeda coordination zones for reporting

officers of MOPHP and partners. Additional

orientation sessions were conducted in Sana’a

as per the request of individual partners.

• Rapid Nutrition Assessment (RNA) in Al

Dhale – following the escalation of conflict in Al Dhahle, the nutritional situation of vulnerable

children and pregnant and lactating women

was reported anecdotally that it might have

worsened. To verify the situation and to decide

whether there I need for immediate response, a

RNA was conducted from 18th -20 th March in

the affected districts of Al-Dhala’,Alhusein,

Alazareq and Gehaf. Findings were disseminat-

ed in Aden and Sana’a coordination meetings.

Subsequently a rapid response plan was devel-

oped by partners in Aden zone.

• SMART Nutrition Surveys in Hodeida – a

follow up SMART nutrition survey was conduct-

ed in Hodedia governorate to monitor if there

has been improvement in nutritional status of

children 6-59 months since last assessment in

December 2011. The survey was conducted

MOPHP and UNICEF in collaboration with NC

partners in the Hodeida. Data collection was

carried out from 22 nd March to 5th April. Pre-

liminary results will be shared in 2 weeks after

the completion of data collection.

• Assessment Plan for 2014 – In consultation

with Sub national clusters and MOPHP a nutri-

tion assessment plan encompassing SMART