4.15 MB - Food Security Clusters

More documents

Recommendations

Info

South Sudan: How a new country can feed its peopleWhat causes malnutrition in SouthSudan?In states where the underlying factors thatdetermine the nutrition outcome, i.e. foodinsecurity, caring and feeding practices and diseasesare worst, under nutrition of children is at its worse.But it is generally extremely difficult to pinpointmalnutrition on any specific factor or factors. Forexample malnutrition does not always go hand inhand with food insecurity or poor food consumption,which is the case in Unity state where dietarydiversity is not so poor as in other states, butmalnutrition is high (calorie consumption is low asare literacy rates and caring practices and childfeeding practices are generally poorer than average).Malnutrition is caused by an interplay of multiplecauses and this varies from state to state.Take Lakes state as an example. It has seen thesteepest downward spiral in childhood wasting andunderweight prevalence since 2006. Wasting is up bysome 43% to 19% while the proportion with severewasting has more than doubled to 8%. Similarly theproportion of underweight under-fives has leapt by47% to 28% and there’s been a 77% rise in severeunderweight prevalence. It is impossible to pin downthis change to one factor: more likely the factors arenumerous, complex and interlinked.One explanation is that the state has become adeficit area because of the escalation in intercommunalfighting (the links between conflict andfood insecurity are explored in the next chapter).Households spend very little on healthcare and ahigher than average number fail to vaccinate,provide pneumonia treatment, give vitamin Asupplementation, treat diarrhea with ORS or arecommended fluid, while care practices such asbreastfeeding, antenatal care for women andproviding the minimum number of meals forchildren are all too often below par. Thedependency ratio is the highest after NorthernBahr el Ghazal.It is the state with the highest proportion ofhouseholds dependent on risky sources of incomesuch as selling alcohol and livestock, which correlatewith malnutrition. Lakes households spend a veryhigh proportion of their expenditure on food,especially cereals, so a way to cope with food pricehikes may be to cut spending on vegetables, fruit, oiland protein (dietary diversity is lowest afterWarrap). All these factors correlate strongly withchildhood malnutrition.Western and Central Equatoria have the lowestprevalence of malnutrition in the country, but thepercentage of wasted children has risen dramaticallysince 2006 in both states. In Central Equatoria severewasting has increased by 152% and is now 3.5%while severe underweight has increased by 67% to9%. Fever/malaria, which is very high in CentralEquatoria (41%), is the most likely cause. The statealso has the second highest incidence of diarrhea.Mortality rates have risen by 8.5% since 2006.Meanwhile Eastern Equatoria has seen a muchbigger increase in child mortality (up 68% to 198 in1000, making it the worst in the country) withfever/malaria cases the highest in the country at45% and suspected pneumonia the second highest.The fact that malnutrition has not worsened (thoughremains worse than the other two Equatoria states)implies a situation where factors increasingmalnutrition in Western and Central Equatoria maybe causing infant deaths in Eastern Equatoria.What may explain this? Again, an interplay of manyfactors. Here health expenditure is the lowest of allstates despite the high morbidity prevalence. Foodaccess and security is among the lowest. It is one ofthe poorest states with low per capita expenditure,high percentage of overall expenditure on food, verylow consumption of protein and high dependency onrisky sources of income (alcohol and livestock sales).Table 4.3 presents the factors that have a significantimpact on the likelihood of a household having amalnourished child.30
South Sudan: How a new country can feed its peopleTable 4.3 – Underlying factors that correlate with child malnutritionUnderlying factorHouseholds with malnourishedchildren:Number of dependent Tend to be more crowded - with more women and under fiveshousehold members Have significantly fewer men aged between 15 and 49 years oldPoverty Have poor wealth index scoresStatus of head ofhousehold Are more likely to be headed by someone who never attended school or doesn’tknow how to read or write. The young mothers are less likely to be literate Are more likely to be headed by a womanSources of food Are more likely to source their food from hunting and gathering, fishing orborrowingFood insecurity Are more likely to be classified as food insecure or severely food insecureLivelihoods Are more likely to have risky sources of income such as selling grass, livestock,livestock products and alcoholPer capita expenditure Have lower per capita expenditure Spend a higher share on cereals (more than half their food expenditure)Feeding practices andsupplements Are less likely to provide children with the minimum number of daily meals (theaverage is just 9.5% of households in rural South Sudan but even less in Warrap,Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Unity, Lakes Are less likely to have supplied 6-23 month old breast-fed children withappropriate or any complementary feeding (Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Upper Nile,Lakes, Jonglei, Warrap, Unity) Are less likely to have breast-fed up to two years (Northern Bahr El Ghazal, UpperNile, Lakes, Jonglei, Warrap, Unity) Are less likely to have given children vitamin A supplementation in the last sixmonths (Only 10% give vitamin A supplement in rural South Sudan. It’s even less inWarrap, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Lakes, Jonglei)Food consumption Eat less cassava, fresh vegetables, fruits and groundnuts/ pulsesVaccination Are less likely to have vaccinated 12-23 month old children against childhooddiseases (Warrap, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Unity, Lakes, Jonglei) Mothers are less likely to have been vaccinated against tetanus during their lastpregnancy (Warrap, Jonglei, Unity Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Upper Nile, Lakes)Care practices Mothers are less likely to have received antenatal care (Warrap, Jonglei, Unity)Are less likely to treat diarrhoea with ORS or recommended fluid (Lakes, Warrap,Unity, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Jonglei)Are less likely to have had treatment for malaria or antibiotics for suspectedpneumonia (Warrap, Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Unity)Household with wasted children are less likely to have mosquito nets (Warrap,Unity, Jonglei) and take malarial drugs on the same or next day (Warrap, Lakes,Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Jonglei, Unity)31
Page 2 and 3: Front page image: Lydia Wamala/WFPA
Page 5: Report on Food Security and Nutriti
Page 11 and 12: MAPS/TABLES/FIGURESList of MapsMap
Page 15 and 16: BACKGROUNDFood Security backgroundF
Page 17 and 18: MeasuringFood Insecurity inSouth Su
Page 19 and 20: South Sudan: How a new country can
Page 23 and 24: The hunger indexThe hunger index pi
Page 25 and 26: Underweight (%)South Sudan: How a n
Page 27 and 28: 19971998199920002001200220032004200
Page 29 and 30: 19961997199819992000200120022003200
Page 33 and 34: CaloriesCaloriesSouth Sudan: How a
Page 35 and 36: CaloriesCaloriesSouth Sudan: How a
Page 39 and 40: Figure 3.12 - Wealth quintiles and
Page 43: South Sudan: How a new country can

4.15 MB - Food Security Clusters

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?