Integrated Food security and Nutrition sensitive response to the most vulnerable households with malnourished under five (U5) children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in Hodeida Governorate FAO proposes to implement an Integrated Food security and Nutrition sensitive response to the most vulnerable households with malnourished under five (U5) children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in Hodeida Governorate. This project will be complementary to WFP supplementary feeding which will be targeting the same HHs. The intervention addresses the priority criteria as defined by the allocation strategy amp FSAC in terms of (i) geographical location (Hodeida Governorate has the highest GAM rate of 31% (Hodeida nutrition survey March 2016) and also high food insecurity (IPC Phase 4). The governorates accounts for 136,608 of the total IDPs caseload within the 14 priority governorates as per the YHPF Allocation Strategy. (ii) Activities - production of highly nutritious vegetables for households’ improved dietary diversity amp food intake and (iii) training amp capacity development of vulnerable households (with a PLW and/or a malnourished U5 child admitted in a CMAM program) on production techniques of highly nutritious vegetables. The project intends to target a total of 23,630 households (HHs) equivalent to 165,411 individuals with either an U5 child or PLW enrolled in a Community Management of Malnutrition (CMAM) program. This will translate to reaching directly to 44,661 men, 41,353 women, 38,044 boys and 41,353 girls. Five districts in Hodeida Governorate (Ad Dahi, Bajil, Al Marawi'ah, Al Garrahi and Al Tuhaita) will be targeted in line with the Nutrition cluster priority districts as stipulated in the YHPF and FSAC 2016 Strategy Paper's targets (based on the number of children U5 and PLW enrolled in nutrition CMAM program). 

An able bodied member drawn from households with either malnourished under five years of age child or PLW enrolled to CMAM will be targeted for training on the cultivation of highly nutritious vegetables. This cultivation will help address underlying causes of malnutrition as well as ensuring  households have some extra vegetables for sale and in return to purchase other foods for the household. The overall outcome of the cultivation of highly nutritious vegetables will be to diversify the diets and thus improving food and nutrition outcomes. A total of 23,630 trainees (representing a household) will benefit from intense and sequenced training program which will be divided into three sessions - 1) General training on Nutrition and Linkages between food insecurity and malnutrition, 2) Land preparations, crop production and management and 3) Harvesting, processing and marketing. The trainings will be sequenced in a manner that each household representative trainee will receive the training and thereafter receive supplementary food from WFP counterparts. 

The targeted households will receive a set of vegetable seeds containing 5 different types of vegetable according to preferences per district. Vegetable seeds will include Okra, Onions, Pepper, Tomatoes and green leafy vegetables. In addition vegetable seeds, each household will also be provided with horticulture tools including Shovel, Rake and Hoe. Training sessions will be coupled with post-distribution follow-up/monitoring. The project will have a direct impact on preventing further deterioration of already malnourished children and PLW, enriching and diversifying the diet of most food insecure households by providing immediate and sustainable sources of vitamins and minerals to supplement staple food production, reducing economic burden on host communities, rebuilding of stocks and productive assets and preventing families resorting to negative or harmful coping strategies.This project will be implemented in conjunction with WFP who will be providing supplementary feeding commodities to the targeted households (23,630) after each training.The composition amp ration of the supplementary nutritional assistance will be done according to WFP’s standards (6kgs of WSB++ per malnourished PLW amp 4 packs of Plumpy doz per malnourish