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Ghana[2006-Present] FANTA-2’s current work in Ghana focuses on community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM). USAID/Ghana asked FANTA-2 to help strengthen activities to address acute malnutrition in children and to help the Ghana Health Service (GHS) improve technical capacity in nutrition. FANTA-2 assists with the introduction and scale-up CMAM services, focusing specifically on severe acute malnutrition (SAM). FANTA-2 also supports the integration of CMAM into the GHS, which helps improve access to CMAM services and strengthen service quality, health service provider competencies and the enabling environment for CMAM. The project’s previous work in Ghana included research on child care practices and child nutrition. CMAM Scale-Up: FANTA-2 helped scale up CMAM activities in Agona District to provide coverage district-wide. FANTA-2 further increased national CMAM capacity by conducting refresher training in Agona and Ashiedu Keteke districts for health care providers and community volunteers working in outpatient care facilities. Health care providers also received refresher training in the management of SAM with medical complications. The Severe Acute Malnutrition Support Unit (SAM SU) requested FANTA-2 to conduct a review of CMAM activities at the learning sites, including plans for adding additional sites, and the results of the review, Report on the Review of the Integration of Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition into the Ghana Health System, August/September 2010, were published in 2011. National Interim Guidelines for CMAM: Under the guidance of Ghana’s national-level technical coordinating committee for SAM and the SAM coordinator in the GHS, FANTA-2 drafted the Interim National Guidelines for Community-Based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition. Multiple partners, including program managers within the GHS and district-level implementers in Agona and Ashiedu Keteke districts, also contributed to the Interim Guidelines, which marked an important step toward harmonizing the management of SAM in Ghana. CMAM Monitoring Tools and Data Repository: FANTA-2 and the GHS SAM coordinator reviewed the CMAM monitoring tools – outpatient care treatment card, tally sheet and reporting forms – and trained health care providers in using them. The monitoring tools were adapted in line with international standards, which will help ensure quality of CMAM services. In addition, a data repository to collect CMAM monitoring information was developed based on these monitoring tools. Child Care Practices and Child Nutrition: In 2002, FANTA produced the report, A Multiple-Method Approach to Studying Childcare in an Urban Environment: The Case of Accra, Ghana, that summarizes findings from the Accra Urban Food and Nutrition Study (AUFNS). The AUFNS used a quantitative survey, comprising a random sample of households with children 3 years or younger, and an observational study, which compared a small group of children from the random sample who experienced early growth faltering with a group of “better growers” from households of similar socioeconomic status. The report discusses the importance of care as an input to child nutrition and the relative contribution of various maternal and household resources to the provision of care.
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