Provision of Lifesaving Nutrition Commodities to Children Under-5 in the BAY States of Northeast Nigeria The project aims to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance for the management of children under five years of age with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Borno, Adamawa amp Yobe (BAY) States of north eastern Nigeria through the provision of a continuous supply of lifesaving nutrition therapeutic foods, including ready to use therapeutic foods (RUTF), therapeutic milks, antibiotics and other essential medicines.

Children with SAM, face severe growth, development and health complications and ultimately the risk of death. UNICEF supports the State Primary Health Care Development Agencies (SPHCDA) across the three BAY states by providing technical and financial assistance to address the problem of malnutrition. The support ensures access to high quality integrated preventative and rehabilitative nutrition services for children under five in affected locations. To ensure scale and quality UNICEF works with both local and international humanitarian partners to reach vulnerable communities through community, facility, and mobile team platforms. UNICEF has existing partnerships with INTERSOS, CARITAS, Action Against Hunger (AAH), Premiere Urgency International (PUI), International Medical Corps (IMC), International Rescue Committee (IRC), PLAN International, The Alliance for Medical Action (ALIMA), Family Health International (FHI) and Save the Children International (SCI) for the implementation of nutrition programming in different Local Government Areas (LGA) of the Northeast Nigeria. To foster quality and accountability for nutrition services rendered, UNICEF deploys LGA level nutrition facilitators to provide onsite coaching and supportive supervision to service providers delivering essential nutrition interventions. However, with the launch of Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) by the national Primary Healthcare Development Agency , the buy-in of the Borno Sate Government and keeping in mind longer term sustainability, UNICEF aims to leverage the CHIPS platform to strengthen community mobilization for timely detection, referral and follow up of children affected with SAM. 

To ensure accountability to affected populations, and enable appropriate treatment of children with SAM, an uninterrupted supply pipeline for lifesaving nutrition commodities is extremely essential. UNICEF, as the sector lead and provider of last resort (PoLR) ensures that all sector partners have an adequate supply to respond to the needs of vulnerable children and their families. Currently with support from multiple donors, the supply pipeline is secure till May-June 2022, following which a stock-out will be experienced. Due to disruptions in the logistics sector, as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it takes an estimated 4-6 months from procurement to delivery of supplies. To prevent the stock-out in June, it is critical that procurement be initiated as soon as possible and no later than January 2022. Funding from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) will be used to ensure an uninterrupted supply pipeline beyond May-June 2022 across the three BAY states in northeast Nigeria.

UNICEF, therefore, seeks USD 3.5 million to reach 42,520 vulnerable children (22,961 girls and 19,559 boys) 6 – 59 months with SAM in 16 LGAs in the BAY states to reduce malnutrition, morbidity and mortality. This includes inpatient treatment for 10% of the children reached, who are anticipated to have medical complications. Consequently, 4,252 children (2,296 girls and 1,956 boys) with SAM with medical complications  will also be reached through the provision of therapeutic milks for intensive phase stabilization. Overall, the project will therefore procure and distribute an anticipated 42,520 cartons of Ready-to-Therapeutic Food (RUTF), 600 cartons of F-75 Therapeutic Milk, 232 cartons of F-100 Therapeutic Milk and antibiotics and other medicines. 42,520 caregivers SAM children  will receive nutrition counselling.