Nutrition

Nutrition plays an important role in the scio-economic well being of the community. Good nutrition for children under two years and mothers helps in cognitive development, healthy individuals and improved incomes in adulthood.

Nebbi District performance on some key nutrition outcome indicators is not good. A UNICEF study indicated stunting among under-5s at 36.6% (2014), Underweight among under-5s – 17.1% (2014), Iron deficiency anemia among under-5s, 91.9% (2012), Vitamin A deficiency among women age 15-49, 36% (2012) and Wasting, 6% (2011).

However, the District has taken keen interest to ensure good nutritional status for children and mothers by formulating a 5 year District Nutrition Action Plan with interventions to tackle malnutrition. The main objectives are to increase access and utilization of nutrition services both at health facility and community level, improve on food security and consumption of diverse diets and also create awareness on nutrition issues.

Some of the interventions include;

  • Training of health workers on management of malnutrition cases and on maternal infant and young child feeding (MIYCF).
  • Micro-nutrient supplementation and management of cased of malnutrition.
  • Health education, provision of nutrition support services (OTC, ITC) at facilities, and nutrition assessment at community level by VHTs.
  • Provision of extension services to farmers and promotion of consumption of micro nutrient rich foods.
  • Improvement on safe water access, sanitation and hygiene practices in the community.

We believe full implementation of the interventions in the action plan will enable us reduce on cases of malnutrition.

The District has been supported in this endeavor by partners and special appreciation goes to  UNICEF, USAID – Community Connector, Concern Worldwide and The Uganda Mutli-sectoral Food Security and Nutrition Project.

Uganda Multi-sectoral Food Security and Nutrition Project

Uganda Multi-sectoral Food Security and Nutrition Project (UMSFNP) aims at promoting production and consumption of nutrient dense foods using primary schools as the focus and provision of nutritional services through health centers. 100 schools in the districts of Nebbi and Pakwach have been selected to benefit from the project.

From the time of commencement of the project in the district, a sum of UGX 1,326,874, 900 received from the Central Government and UGX 343,574, 900 has been spent for operations while UGX 983,300, 000 has been disbursed to 100 benefiting Schools.

The schools have established school gardens where the parents can be able to learn from. A total of 200 groups with a total membership of 6,000 parents have been established at the school levels. 200 lead farmers and lead mothers have been trained with the aim of seed multiplication and demonstration cooking.