Implemented by the NGO Action Against Hunger (ACF) and funded by the Canadian Cooperation to the tune of 8 million Canadian dollars, (CFAF 3 billion), the program aims to reduce mortality and the morbidity of girls and boys under 5 in Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
This program which targets 1,467,170 people seeks, on the one hand aims to increase access to integrated and quality care and prevention of severe acute malnutrition for children under 5 as well as pregnant and breast-feeding women in the Sahel areas covered by the project.
On the other hand, the program seek to improve access to WASH services (water, sanitation, hygiene) and the capacity of women to take steps for the prevention and management of malnutrition.
In Senegal for example, ACF, in collaboration with the Malnutrition Cell (CLM), has introduced, as part of this project, the “PB Menages” strategy in the department of Linguere (center) consisting of training several people in the household on anthropometric measurements and infant and young child feeding (ANJF), so that they become aware of the importance of this strategy and that they can use it to undertake arm measurement and look for edema in children aged between 6 to 59 months.
Following the implementation of this program, ACF said it noted that the involvement of local and administrative authorities as well as community and religious leaders could facilitate household participation.
However, ACF declares, greater involvement of fathers remains a challenge to be overcome so that their authority remains an advantage for monitoring within the household.