CERF supports vital under-funded humanitarian activities in Mauritania

In recent years, Mauritania has faced a series of food crises, which have had a deep impact on the nutritional situation of children under five years of age. Geographic and climate-related factors such as drought and soil degradation, in combination with socio-economic causes, including a growing incidence of extreme poverty, declining access to basic infrastructure, good governance and rising inequalities, are responsible for this gradual deterioration.

Living conditions for the Mauritanian population are precarious. Morbidity, as well as maternal, infant and child mortality rates, remains generally high despite efforts undertaken by the Government and its partners. Women, newborns and children are the most affected by these conditions; among children under five years of age acute respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoea remain the three main causes of death.

The survey “Demography and Health”, conducted from 2000 to 2001, estimated that almost 13 per cent of children under five years of age suffered from acute malnutrition, while more than one third were chronically malnourished. Between 2003 and 2005, the Mauritanian Government and its partners undertook further studies in areas regularly at risk of food insecurity. The results revealed a prevalence of acute malnutrition ranging from 10 to 25 per cent depending on the region and the season – and exceeding the threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The CERF allocated over $2 million from funds allotted for under-funded emergencies to a joint project to fight infant malnutrition, implemented by four UN agencies.

Boys and girls collect water from a well near Maghta Lajar in the barren Aftout region of Mauritania. [Photo: WFP]

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) used the funding to help put in place a systematic monthly screening for severe and moderate acute malnutrition, by providing equipment and training for health officers. Some 225 kits for screening acute malnutrition were distributed to regional health authorities that conducted, between October 2006 and February 2007, three screening missions, covering 104,000 children aged between 6 and 59 months. After establishing a list of 401 villages eligible to open a Community Feeding Centre (CFC), such facilities were set up in places where the World Food Programme (WFP) was not already present. In 2006, the 393 active CFCs cared for 14,290 children suffering from moderate malnutrition, representing 78 per cent of the target population.

The UNICEF provided each of the CFCs administered by a non-governmental organization (NGO) with an anthropometric assessment kit.

The department-level Centres for Rehabilitation and Nutritional Education (CRNE), as well as 346 other health facilities, were supplied with therapeutic foodstuffs. In 2006, 1,600 children suffering from severe malnutrition were treated in such centres. The CERF grant also made it possible to supply vitamin A supplements to 434,847 children aged five to 59 months, as well as anti-parasitic medicines to 375,710 children aged 12 to 59 months. Finally, the UNICEF set up, based on two annual surveys, a nutritional information system that proved to be very useful as an alarm, advocacy and priority-defining instrument.

Its CERF allocation enabled the WHO to establish a pool of 413 trainers, including doctors and skilled technicians, to be deployed to affected regions and to strengthen the capacity of 150 health service providers. The UN agency was able to establish a roster to supervise nutritional activities on a regional and national level. In addition, the WHO acquired drugs and anthropometric equipment essential for screening processes and provided therapeutic food and micro-nutriments for 1,500 children aged 6 to 59 months.

Food shortages hit young children hardest. WFP provides food to over 260 community feeding centres, with plans to double that number in coming months with the assistance of the government, UNICEF and NGOs. [Photo: WFP]

WFP used its funds to provide nutritional support for 8,287 children under 5 years of age, as well as for 4,867 pregnant and lactating women, under a programme established before the allocation of the CERF grant. Some 761 metric tonnes of food were purchased and distributed with CERF funding. In addition to twice-daily therapeutic feeding to children in CFCs, the WFP offered sessions on nutritional and sanitary education as well as cooking lessons for their mothers. The nutritional recovery rate in the various centres was, on average, higher than 90 per cent.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) distributed assistance to vulnerable stock keepers and vaccinated animals against several diseases such as sheep and goat plague, sheep pox, Newcastle disease, pasteurellosis and botulism. The CERF grant was also used to establish a set of indicators, including clinical observations, birth and mortality rates and immunity status, and to prepare a system of follow-up. With regards to the agricultural aspect of the programme, the FAO inspected the quality inputs, identified beneficiaries and partners – especially NGOs – prior to seed distribution, and established follow-up and assessment of the activities undertaken. In point of fact, the CERF allocation permitted the FAO to start projects that had had to be postponed for budgetary reasons and allowed others short on funding to continue.

[Last Update: 14 June 2007]

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CERF in Mauritania 2007

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