By Nadia Khan
25 June 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Throughout much of Africa, drought and resulting famine takes a heavy toll on the young. Each year over five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition and related illnesses. The situation in the West African nation of Togo is no different.
In this country, where around 5.5 million people rely on an economy strongly dependent on a less-than-reliable agricultural system, children are suffering the effects of malnutrition. According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), the under-five malnutrition rate in Togo is 14.3 percent, well above the 10 percent emergency level.
In response to this growing problem, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched a campaign against malnutrition in two of the five Togolese regions with severe under-five malnutrition rates –22.6 percent in the Kara Region and 32 percent in the Savanes Region. This campaign aims to bring aid to the more than 77,000 malnourished children in these regions, 18,800 of which are suffering from acute severe malnutrition.
The UNICEF program is designed to be implemented in multiple stages, the earliest of which have already resulted in the opening of 134 nutritional rehabilitation centers, the training of over 1,750 health care workers and a supply of 200 tons of food and supplemental materials. The second phase, launched in Togo this month, has “been conducted with the purpose of getting closer to the communities and reach[ing] the most isolated children,” Aissa Mamadoultaibou, UNICEF Nutrition Specialist in Togo, told MediaGlobal.
“Numerous children do not have access to medical care and find themselves out of the areas of operation of the health centers,” said Mamadoultaibou, and this new strategy “allows for the identification of disparities and the location of villages where child malnutrition is the highest.” This strategy has produced more accurate and area-specific data for UNICEF. Through these measures workers are able to assess the differences in malnutrition rates from one village to another— a range, they have discovered, that reaches from three percent to 24 percent in some communities.
Working within these communities is what makes the UNICEF program a growing success. The community-based approach “takes care of children suffering from moderate and severe malnutrition without complication at the community level,” in addition to the “awareness-raising activities, conducted in order to prevent the risks of malnutrition in children,” Mamadoultaibou said. The UNICEF-trained community health agents are instructed to monitor, detect and treat malnutrition. They hand out therapeutic food products from UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), as well as supplements like vitamin A and Albendazole.
As the campaign continues, UNICEF is learning to adapt the program to the challenges it faces. “The main challenge that the strategy allowed us to overcome was the rapid detection of malnourished children,” noted Mamadoultaibou. The nutritional rehabilitation centers alone will enable 300 children to be examined each month. However, with the implementation of the community-based approach and training of community health agents, UNICEF was able to expand their reach to 1,038 children in one day at the launch of the program in the Savanes region and 2,098 children at the launch of the program in the Kara Region.
The next phase of this campaign in Togo is expected go into effect in July of 2008, when UNICEF begins implementing these strategies in the Togolese Maritime Region, which suffers from a 12.9 percent under-five malnutrition rate. The launch will prove the advanced strategy is a success, which originally, “was supposed to be organized in the Savanes region as a test,” said Mamadoultaibou. However, “thanks to the results and success, the campaign was extended to the Kara region,” she said.
If the programs continue to achieve results, “UNICEF wish[es] to mobilize additional financial resources in order to extend the strategy to more districts and regions,” said Mamadoultaibou, noting that “UNICEF has [already] received financial support from donors such as ECHO [European Community Humanity aid Office], the French Cooperation and the Central Emergency Response Fund.”