Integrated lifesaving nutrition response to conflict affected and vulnerable populations (Children 6-59 months, pregnant and lactating women) in Malakal County of South Sudan. Through SSHF funding, International Medical Corps (IMC) will provide emergency nutrition services to the underserved and affected internally displaced people (IDPs) and the host populations in Malakal county. The proposed nutrition response will focus on treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition among children (boys and girls) aged 0-59 month, pregnant and lactating women (PLW) with acute malnutrition through management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), in nutrition facilities/sites and provision of support to a Maternal-Infant Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) focusing on the first 1000 days of a child's life. The proposed SSHF funding will be for 12 months’ period from June 1st, 2020, to May 31st , 2021. Hence, this proposed project will support continuation of nutrition service delivery and will enable a response in a county that has a very high level of GAM gt15% and already declared to be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) acute food insecurity in May-August 2020, the situation can deteriorate further if humanitarian interventions are not continued timely

IMC, through this funding, will ensure that the host communities and IDPs in this county have access to high-quality nutrition services by ensuring timely service delivery, regular supply chain, adequate staffing, joint supportive supervision, proactive community mobilization and engagement for participation led by community health and nutrition volunteers. This will be supported through augmentation of ongoing capacity strengthening efforts at facility and community levels.
This proposed project will strengthen the existing static nutrition sites and support outreach nutrition services to address the emergency nutritional needs of children under five, PLW in Malakal County. The project will be implemented through 5 existing sites (4 static nutrition sites and 1 outreach site).The proposed interventions will complement the ongoing activities funded by UNICEF and WFP. The project will reach a total of 19,515 (13,300 children 6-59 months of age, 344 men and 5,871 PLWs) beneficiaries with acute malnutrition. IMC currently has an active program cooperation agreement (PCA) with UNICEF and Field level agreement (FLA) with WFP, this will ensure consistency of nutrition supplies for SAM and MAM, respectively in Malakal County. Furthermore, IMC will reinforce integration and linkages with other sectors (Health, Food Security, WASH, and Protection) to address the key drivers of malnutrition through enhanced coordination and joint programming targeting of vulnerable groups in coordination with other partners in the area..

In response to the current Covid-19 outbreak in South Sudan IMC Malakal project will provide training to all nutrition staff members including community nutrition volunteers and Mother support groups on Covid-19 including infection prevention and control print of Covid-19 IEC materials, strengthen community mobilization(use of local radio stations in Malakal ) on Covid-19 risks and mitigation measures, pre-positioning of essential nutrition commodities, Mount bigger sheds for spacious waiting areas.