Ethiopia Nutrition (FY08)

closed

The objectives of the Nutrition Project in Ethiopia are: to improve child and maternal care behavior, and increase utilization of key micronutrients, in order to contribute to improving the nutritional status of vulnerable groups. There are two components to the project. The first component is the supporting service delivery. This component will provide support to: (i) community-based nutrition which will strengthen and support the provision of community-based nutrition and health services, fully utilizing the existing health extension program outreach and model household service provision structure; and (ii) micronutrient interventions which will enhance the appropriate utilization of key micronutrients, especially iodine, iron, vitamin A and zinc. The second component is the institutional strengthening and capacity building. This component will provide support to: (i) strengthening human resources and capacity building which will support coordination mechanisms for nutrition at different levels, institutional capacity building for implementing units and activities at different levels of government (including human resources strengthening) and training and capacity building of research and training institutions; and (ii) advocacy, social mobilization and program communication which will support a well-functioning communications strategy, identification of priority behavioral change messages and systematic incorporation of these into the communications systems in the health sector and in other sectors and use of media to bring about nutrition-related behavior change; and (iii) strengthening nutrition information/surveillance, monitoring and evaluation and operational research which will address the need to set up a proper nutritional surveillance system in Ethiopia. The activities supported will build on existing data collection structures, will undertake overall monitoring and evaluation for the National Nutrition Program (NNP), and will also cover relevant operational research for the NNP.