An assessment of the causes of malnutrition in Ethiopia: A ...

Table 6.6: (continued)
Agency
Intervention
Status
Médecins Sans Frontières - Switzerland
Pilot therapeutic feeding project
Handed over to MOH.
Timeframe 2005
Main areas
Objectives
Activities
Target
Sites
Therapeutic feeding for severe acute malnutrition, malaria treatment, reduction of
mortality from malaria and malnutrition
N/A
Nutritional surveillance
N/A
Damot Gale Woreda, Wolayita zone, SNNP
Roles definition MOH staff implemented with no salary incentive from the program. Coordination by MSF
staff.
Partners
Training
Tools
developed
Achievements
Challenges
Sustainability
MOH
Training in community therapeutic feeding for MOH health workers.
Key protocols for use in community therapeutic clinic (CTC) program
600 malnourished children were treated in an in-patient therapeutic feeding center (TFC).
100 of these children transferred to the community therapeutic program. Their nutritional
indicators have improved significantly.
• Chronic nature of nutrition problem due to overpopulation, high fertility rates, and
insufficient land.
• MOH unwilling or unable to take on responsibility of treatment of severe malnutrition.
• HIV/ AIDS and TB – many children are recurrently or chronically malnourished from
these diseases.
• Financial barriers - after NGO withdrawal, patients must pay for basic medications and
hospitalization costs, which are usually unaffordable.
Training of the health workers, in addition to implementing the program within the health
structures , has a potential for sustainability. However, health workers are over-worked
with small salaries. Consequently, they are reluctant to take on extra responsibilities of
those tasks that were previously done by the NGO.
Lessons learnt • Positive experience in training of government health workers, but serious concerns
about sustainability. Need to look at structural reform of the health system to make a
real difference.
• Food targeting has been done quite poorly in the past.
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