IRIN reports on efforts to better address moderate acute malnutrition

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Sep 13 2010

Aid groups in West Africa are trying out new strategies and products for treating moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) as part of a U.N.-led effort to change 30 year old policies, IRIN reports.

Different approaches are currently being researched in Chad, Mali and Niger. Robert Ackatia, a researcher in the Mali capital Bamako, said one of the main goals of a project he is working on is to develop a global protocol for treating MAM, like the one that exists for severe malnutrition.

"Nutrition advisers say tackling MAM calls for huge resources, given the numbers, but that effective prevention and treatment could save a significant number of children from becoming severely malnourished," the news service writes. UNICEF nutrition adviser for West and Central Africa Felicite Tchibindat said, "It is clear that if we just concentrate on treating severely acute malnourished children we will never solve the issue, because we will not deal with these high numbers of moderately malnourished children."

The article also looks at the challenges associated with obtaining funding for MAM research and other concerns that arise when dealing with MAM (9/10).

WFP Has Invested $14M In Ugandan Nutrition Programs, Official Says
The World Food Programme (WFP) has invested up to $14 million to fund nutrition programs in Uganda, Stanlake Samkange, the WFP country director, said recently, the Daily Monitor reports.

"While this year WFP will spend over $9 million on more traditional programmes including the school meals' programmes aimed at addressing food insecurity in the Karamoja region, it has also made important longer term investments in nutrition security in line with Uganda's National Development Plan," Samkange said. He added, "WFP's traditional emergency support to disaster-affected populations, combining nutrition with agriculture is a key part of WFP's efforts to help the government eradicate hunger" (Lirri, 9/10).

USAID Donates $46M To Combat Malnutrition In Burundi
USAID said in a statement on Thursday that it "has donated $46 million to Burundi, to prevent and reduce child malnutrition," Reuters reports.

"Fifty thousand women and children in two poor eastern provinces affected by chronic malnutrition will benefit from the aid in the next five years, the USAID said in a statement" (9/9).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.