ENHANCE ACCESS TO NUTRITIONAL SERVICES IN PANYIKANG COUNTY, UPPER NILE STATE  IN SOUTH SUDAN. The nutrition situation in South Sudan remains critical as food insecurity is expected to worsen. Currently the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) levels in South Sudan are at 23% which is above 15% threshold of an emergency (UNICEF 2018). In Upper Nile GAM, SAM and MAM rates are even more higher reported at 21.8%, 5.8% and 16% respectively, The FSNMS round 20  ( Food Security and Malnutrition system Rates) shows increasing levels of malnutrition in the Upper Nile States and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 2018 classifies region to be in the Emergency level, grading malnutrition at critical levels. Its estimated that 1 in every 4 persons are food insecure. (IPC May-July 2018). 

The Objective of this project is to this project is to deliver quality life-saving management of acute malnutrition to prevent under nutrition by increasing access to Maternal infant and young child nutrition interventions ,increase access to integrated nutrition, health, WASH, FSL and Protection interventions  to reduce Mortality and Morbidity related to Malnutrition  among vulnerable population of Panyikang county.

Health Link south Sudan intends to reach 100% of the nutrition  cluster targets , and in line with the in line with the Cluster Objectives, HLSS intends to:
 Deliver quality life-saving management of acute malnutrition for the most vulnerable and at-risk under-five children, pregnant and lactating women
 Increased access to maternal infant and young child nutrition programs preventing under-nutrition for the most vulnerable and at risk.
 Enhanced nutrition situation monitoring, analysis and utilization of nutrition information for early warning timely coordinated response decision making.

The modalities to achieve the above objectives will be delivered through Out Patient therapeutic program, and Targeted supplementary feeding programme. 

The project targets total direct beneficiaries: 350  SAM, 503 MAM (among Children aged 6 to 59 months) and 144 MAM (among Pregnant and Lactating Mothers). Indirect beneficiaries include 7558 PLW and the general population who will be reached with messages on IYCF 
-The major activities among others will include :
-Treatment of SAM and MAM among children aged 6-59 months and Pregnant and Lactating mothers. Routine nutritional screening at facility entry points and community. 
-Establishment of 2 OTP and TSFP service sites at all the 2 functional health facilities of Tonga PHCC and  Owech PHCU. And 2 out of facility OTP/TSFP sites
-Training of health and Nutrition workers on CMAM and MIYCN. 
-Establishment of 4 Mother support groups and conduct Individual and group IYCF counselling
-Conducting community outreaches and engagement meetings.
-Conducting Smart survey to access nutritional status of the population

This proposed nutrition project will be integrated in to the already existing health programmes provided being provided in this location with support from World Bank. The integration will better address the nutritional needs of children and PampLW. HLSS will implement this project in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the county health department and other clusters to ensure a holistic approach in service provision.