Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU)
Date: 28 Apr 2006
Overview
During April, the onset of rains in many areas offered some relief in terms of access to water and pasture but also presented additional challenges to humanitarian organisations delivering essential aid to populations experiencing food security crises. A number of areas in the north have not received rain and both humans and animals are experiencing increased distress.
Throughout the south, population movement continues and levels of malnutrition remain generally high and subject to fluctuations. There can be little doubt that early humanitarian and social assistance which responded to food security early warnings (issued in November 2005) have prevented a large scale humanitarian disaster in this area. Unfortunately, devastation of livelihoods has occurred for tens of thousands of households who will require substantial assistance to recover and will be unable to maintain household food security for some time. A preliminary projection of the impact of the current rains will be available in early June.
Civil insecurity continues to present enormous challenges to nutrition surveillance activities but nevertheless, four FSAU led interagency nutrition assessments in areas of concern are currently underway.
Gedo Nutrition Assessment
Between 22nd and 29th March 2006 an interagency nutrition and mortality assessment was conducted by FSAU, Gedo Health Consortium, UNICEF and WFP in Gedo region, excluding Bardera town. CARE, NCA, FEWS-NET and COSV also participated. Using a two-stage (30×30) cluster sampling methodology, 922 children, aged 6-59 months and measuring 65-109.9 cm in height/length, 317 non-pregnant and 115 pregnant women from 437 households were assessed. A total of 906 households were surveyed for mortality.
The global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate (weight for height <-2 Z score or oedema) was 23.8% (95%CI: 21.1 -26.7) and severe acute malnutrition (weight for height <-3 or oedema) was 3.7% (95%CI 2.6 – 5.2). Fourteen cases of oedema were recorded. The GAM rate indicates a critical malnutrition situation in the entire Gedo region. The under-five death rate was 2.46 (CI 1.38- 3.54) per 10,000 persons per day and the crude mortality rate was 1.04 (CI: 0.65- 1.44) per 10,000 persons per day. Both crude and under-five mortality rates indicate a situation of ‘alert’, based on WHO categorization. Variations within the region were noted with children from Districts in northern Gedo (Luuq, Dolo, Gabahare and Bula Hawa) being more likely to malnourished (RR=0.68, p=0.011) than those from southern Gedo (Bardera and Elwak). Children from rural clusters were also more likely to be malnourished than those from urban clusters (RR=1.38, p=0.001). About 40.9% of the pregnant women were malnourished (MUAC<23.0 cm) while 4.3% were severely malnourished (MUAC< 20.7cm). None of the non-pregnant women was malnourished (MUAC<18.5).
More than half (57.2%) of the children aged 6- 24 months were not breastfeeding at the time of the assessment. Only 28% of the children were exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months; 60.2% of the children were introduced to complementary feeding at the age of 0 – 3 months and 64.2% were given foods other than breast milk twice a day. The results further showed that children aged 6-24 months who were not breastfeeding were more likely to be malnourished than those breastfeeding (p=0.005). Over 80% of households are consuming food from three or fewer food groups, an indicator of inadequate diversity and household food insecurity. Food aid and purchases are significant sources of food.
Full report (pdf* format – 315 KB)
