Envelope 1 Nutrition Nyirol and Fangak, Jonglei State, South Sudan: Increasing equitable access to lifesaving nutrition treatment services for IPC 4 and 5 affected populations It is well documented that flooding, intercommunal conflict, the economic crisis and COVID-19 are the drivers of the disaster gripping South Sudan. The 18 Dec 2020 IPC report indicates that targeted counties are rated IPC 4 Emergency. The South Sudan 2021 HNO (pg 34) shows the combined percentage of population in Extreme and Catastrophic Levels 4 and 5 is 47% in Fangak and 49% in Nyirol. “The lean season from May to July 2021 is expected to be the worst on record” (The Cost of Inaction, OCHA South Sudan, May 2021, pg 1). The SSHF SA1 Strategy Paper (pg. 7) indicates both counties are among the 15 worst affected counties. 

To address this crisis, this project will focus on improving access to basic nutrition services. Key activities will be: MUAC screening of children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) admitting for treatment those children experiencing severe acute, and moderate acute malnutrition and PLW experiencing moderate acute malnutrition and providing Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) counseling embedded within the treatment services. 

To increase access to nutrition sensitive interventions, the project will: engage with Health partners for treating malaria of under 5 patients providing Clinical Management of Rape (CMR) and treating SAM with medical complications engage with FSL partners for support to establish kitchen gardens at OTP sites and engage with WASH partners to provide WASH kits for U5 patients, deliver WASH messages and NFIs when available. To strengthen protection mainstreaming, the project will tap the skills of an experienced Protection officer to work with CMA’s on-ground team to undertake safety audits and establish community-based protection mechanisms. In addition, a budget has been planned to enhance CMA’s capacity to reach out to co-located humanitarian partners to link with this project’s nutrition services to achieve a more integrated program. This includes enhanced capacity to collaborate and coordinate with other humanitarian partners and participate fully in the NGO and government county-based coordination forums. 

The project will provide a 38-member field team of 2 Nutrition Nurses, 9 CMAM Supervisors, 9 Nutrition Assistants, 18 Community Nutrition Mobilizers to strengthen static and mobile outreach services. The planned nutrition activities and operations will be domiciled in 9 sites where the project strategy seeks to strengthen 4 existing OTP facilities and establish 5 new facilities. From these static sites, CMA will target seven remote locations with new mobile, outreach and technical capacity capable of serving emergencies and IDPs in hard-to-reach locations. In order to strengthen outreaches, CMA’s strategy will be emphatic on the establishment of 2 mobile teams to cover the 4 remote sites in Nyirol and 1 mobile team to cover 3 remote sites in Fangak.

Planned critical results indicate the project will target 1,300 children suffering SAM and 2,702 with MAM in Nyirol 544 children suffering SAM and 1,238 with MAM in Fangak. The project will also target PLW with MAM - 2,177 in Nyirol and 931 in Fangak. An estimated 9,853 PLW and caregivers in Nyirol and 3,657 in Fangak will be targeted with counselling which is embedded with treatment services on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) combined with WASH, Health, Protection and FSL messaging. In relation to Nutrition Cluster targets, this project will target 100% of the U5 SAM and U5 MAM targets in Nyirol and in Fangak 38% of U5 SAM and 37% of U5 MAM will be reached. For PLW MAM, this project will cover 100% of Nutrition Cluster target for Nyirol and 38% of target in Fangak. Among the beneficiaries will be 1,874 U5 IDP children and 1,010 IDP PLW, and 93 children with disabilities and 57 PLW with disabilities