Sudan
[2009-Present]
Working with USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (DCHA/OFDA) and USAID/Sudan, FANTA-2 helps the Government of Sudan Federal and State Ministries of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and nongovernmental organization implementing partners (IPs) strengthen capacity for planning and implementing Community-Based Management of (Severe) Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in Sudan. Continuing work started under FANTA, FANTA-2 provides technical assistance at the national and state levels, focusing on strengthening the knowledge and skills of senior health care providers and managers in CMAM through the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) CMAM Support Team (ST) and CMAM Technical Working Group (TWG) activities.
Reviewing CMAM Programs in Darfur: FANTA, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) conducted a joint review of the quality and effectiveness of CMAM programs in Darfur in 2008. The review identified the need to strengthen the capacity of the Federal and State Ministries of Health and training institutions in the management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). FANTA-2 helped translate the review’s recommendations into action plans for the Federal and Darfur State Ministries of Health to integrate and scale up CMAM and to improve service quality.
Field Validation of Alternative Sampling Designs in Emergency Settings: FANTA, in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Save the Children and the Ohio State University, used Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) methods to develop and test three new sampling designs to respond to the data collection priorities of emergency settings. Field tests in Sudan in 2006 and Ethiopia in 2003 showed that these alternative sampling designs provide rapid and statistically reliable methods for assessing the prevalence of global acute malnutrition, in addition to several other child and household-level indicators. An article reporting on the FANTA and Save the Children field test in Sudan, "Precision, Time, and Cost: A Comparison of Three Sampling Designs in an Emergency Setting," was published in Emerging Themes in Epidemiology in 2008.
CMAM Coordinating Mechanisms and Programmatic Support: FANTA-2, in close collaboration with the FMOH and UNICEF, helped establish a CMAM ST and developed a strategy for strengthening capacities and integrating and scaling up CMAM in Sudan. FANTA-2 also participates in CMAM ST activities. The CMAM ST coordinated the development of national CMAM guidelines with support from the CMAM TWG, develops key capacity-strengthening tools and materials, and implements capacity-strengthening activities such as training and mentoring. In addition, FANTA-2 conducted a review of community outreach in Sudanese health programs and developed a community outreach strategy for CMAM.

USAID Country Profile
[www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/sudan/index.html]
UNICEF Country Profile
[www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sudan.html]
WFP Country Profile
[www.wfp.org/country_brief/index_region.asp?region=9]
Demographic and Health Surveys Country Survey
[www.measuredhs.com/countries/country_main.cfm?ctry_id=38&c=Sudan
]
FAO Country Food Security Statistics
[www.fao.org/faostat/foodsecurity/Countries/EN/Sudan_e.pdf]
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