Emergency integrated food security, nutrition, WASH and health intervention for the conflict affected communities in Abyan and Al Hudaydah The International Rescue Committee (IRC) will provided an integrated package of health, nutrition, food security and WASH services to ensure that the most vulnerable receive a full package of interventions to address the immediate causes of food security and malnutrition in Rasad District in Abyan Governorate, and through Responsiveness for Relief and Development Foundation (RRD) in Bayt Al Faqiah District in Al Hudaydah Governorate. 

The project will ensure that conflict affected communities have increased access to essential health and RH care through MHTs and supported HFs and EmOC facilities in Abyan and Al Hudaydah and ensure that they are equipped with appropriate equipment, drugs and medical supplies. Incentives will be provided to staff of selected HFs to enable the provision of primary health care and basic emergency obstetric care services. The project will provide support to secondary health care and to improve access of women to skilled deliveries, the EmOC facilities will be provided with required essential drugs. The EmOC facility will be provided with solar panels to maintain the life-saving services during electricity outrages. Minor rehabilitation will be also provided. It is a priority of the project to ensure that women and girls have safe and equal access to services, and find the support they need when they experience gender-based violence. The health services in Rasad will be provided through one MHT, 3 HFs and one basic EmOC, and in Bayt Al Faqiah through RRD with support to 4 HFs and one basic EmOC facility. In Abyan, MoPHP informed the IRC that there are no staff in most of the HFs and they will only be able to provide staff for 3 HFs who receive incentives from the IRC, while the MHT will cover the catchment population of second and third level of the 3 HFs and catchment population of 2 other HFs.

The project will contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to malnutrition among vulnerable communities in the targeted areas through supporting the MoPHP to implement and scale up CMAM. The project aims to increase coverage and access to the prevention and treatment of SAM and MAM. The intervention will provide micronutrient supplementation and promote optimal IYCF practices. The nutrition activities will be implemented through an integrated approach, working closely with the IRC health team to provide life-saving treatment for acute malnutrition in the targeted districts through CMAM targeting children under five and PLW. In hopes of further reducing malnutrition, the project will select caretakers of malnourished children to receive food voucher assistance exchangeable for food items in Rasad District. It is anticipated that these caretakers will be empowered to purchase, via vouchers, nutritious foods for their families and thus contribute to the reduction of malnutrition and food insecurity in their household. 

As there is a direct link between good hygiene practices and access to sanitation facilities and good health and nutrition, this project will provide a complementary set of WASH interventions through hygiene promotion, rehabilitation of latrines and solid waste disposal facilities, and provision of safe water and water treatment items. These interventions will be implemented in the same communities as the health and nutrition interventions to ensure that the same health and nutrition beneficiaries and their wider communities receive the full package of interventions. Ultimately, through the proposed project, it is anticipated that 48,361 individuals whom are currently receiving very limited humanitarian support will benefit and have improved food security and reduced malnutrition. 

The project will continue to work with RRD in Al Hudaydah, a national organization with a footprint in these communities where they have been providing emergency support and working directly with community volunteers and key figures to address the critical need in the targeted areas.