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Emergency Nutrition Response in UKRAINE

13th – 15th October, 2015GNC Annual Meeting, Nairobi, Kenya

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Country Context

Pre-crisis (Nutrition Indicators) Current Situation

GAM prevalence 1.3% (2000) Less than 1% (MUAC screening U2)

Anaemia prevalence pre-crisis 22.2% (2004), no information on other MNDs

Not known

IYCF practices sub-optimal, ex. Exclusive BF 19.7% (2012), wide use of BMS

14-25% exclusive breastfeeding among children 0-5 months

No info on other population groups No info on other population groups

Nutrition Sub-Cluster Coordination Structure

• Clusters activated Dec 2014: Food Security and Nutrition Cluster (WFP led)

• GNC scoping mission Feb 2015: Nutrition (UNICEF led) moved under Health and Nutrition Cluster (Gvt+WHO led)

• 4 surge NCCs (Mar to Sep 2015), gaps in coordination capacity• No sub-national coordination due to security constraints• Partner presence:

• UN agencies: UNICEF, WHO, WFP• WHO hired nutritionist for 6 mo• UNICEF recruitment ongoing• WFP RO provides technical support

• INGOs: ACF, SCI, HelpAge, People in Need• SCI hired IYCF specialist for 6 months

• LNGOs: Akhmetov foundation (AF), Romanovskyi foundation, smaller NGOs• No NiE capacity

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Overview of Needs Assessments and Analysis

• No nutrition assessments for 2015 HRP (Nov 2014)• GNC scoping mission (SDR+ KIIs) informed revision of 2015 HRP (Feb

2015): IYCF is main concern, anaemia and nutrition of older people on radar

• IYCF: – IYCF questions included to coordinated assessment but no follow up: no useful results

(Feb 2015)– Rapid preliminary IYCF assessments (KIIs + FGDs) in GCAs informed planning (Apr-May

2015)– IYCF Surveys + MUAC 6-23 mo in GCAs (June 2015, SCI, CDC), no assessments in NGCAs– Surveys shared but not used for 2015 planning/programming

• Anaemia– RRT + CDC developed plan for anaemia surveillance in children and PLW (Apr 2015)– Discussions to implement ongoing

• Older people– No data on malnutrition but identified highly at risk– Agreed to screen older people in mobile clinics, scheduled to conduct MUAC training

early Oct 2015

Strategic Nutrition Priorities– No nutrition in the original 2015 HRP– Cluster response priorities determined for Revised HRP with GNC-

CT, UNICEF HQ and RO support– IYCF identified as primary intervention with activities, targets,

indicators, followed by assessments and anaemia prevention– Other interventions (MNs, possibly AM) mentioned & scale up

pending more information– Many interventions to implement through other clusters (WASH,

Health, CP, FS)– Focus on capacity building of partners and health workers– Action plan developed and endorsed (May 2015)

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Gaps in Resource Mobilization

• Funding• Activity based costing, 9.5 mln requested, 600K received (6%)• HR• No dedicated NCC capacity for 10 month• Partner capacity: strong for CF distribution, limited for IYCF

counselling and NiE technical support. Capacity building plan integrated to and costed in HRP and action plan: focus on local partners and health workers, but no capacity to conduct trainings immediately

• Supplies• Complementary food for about 20,000 children• Identified need for MNPs and asked UNICEF support

– MNPs not certified in Ukraine, therefore later agreed not to introduce MNPs as difficult to certify new product

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Sector/Cluster SRP Achievement in terms of targets

IYCF-E: • Two assessments done• IYCF statement developed in Apr, signed by

MoH in Sep• 20,800 mothers received brochures• CF distributed to about 35,000 children a month

Challenges in achieving strategic priorities

• Limited focus on IYCF and nutrition by Gov’t in post-Soviet countries: no legislation, limited capacity of Gov’t and partners

• Lack of sustainability of achievements due to high turnover of coordination staff, limited technical capacity of partners

• Limited INGOs interest in non-AM emergencies, therefore limited capacity

• Not clear how to work with many small NGOs and CCOs that are not partners of the cluster

• Being under FS or Health Cluster challenging (fundraising, no space for nutrition discussions)