South Sudan

Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan South Sudan 2024 / Part 3: Sector response plan

3.7 Nutrition

People in need
2.5 million
People targeted
1.8 million
Requirements (US$)
$209.9 million

Needs

South Sudan faces a grave nutrition situation affecting its most vulnerable children and women. The 2023 FSNMS and SMART survey indicate that national Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) levels surpass the WHO's 15 percent emergency threshold. This places 2.5 million individuals at risk of acute malnutrition in 2024, with 46 out of 79 counties exceeding the threshold. Contributing factors to this crisis include high food insecurity, with an estimated 5.8 million people facing acute food insecurity, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, affecting over 50 percent of the population, and elevated child morbidity rates as a result of diseases such as diarrhea, malaria or upper respiratory infections. Other factors include concerns over GBV and poor child feeding and care practices, with only 4 percent of children receiving the required nutrition. Furthermore, multiple deprivation analysis identifies 18 counties grappling with severe deprivation, further exacerbating the malnutrition crisis.

Response

The Nutrition cluster's primary goal is to deliver emergency nutrition assistance to 1.8 million children and women, collaborating with other clusters, including FSL, Health, Protection, WASH, and Education, to provide comprehensive multi-sectoral interventions. Nutrition sites will offer integrated services for malnutrition prevention and treatment. A people-centered approach will be adopted, fostering collaboration with other clusters to ensure safe, equitable, and dignified access to a comprehensive package of essential services. This may include CVA to benefit nutritionally vulnerable children and women.

Recognizing the importance of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus and localization, the cluster is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of communities and government personnel at the sub-national level. The goal is to foster resilience and advocate for substantial, long-term investments in addressing the root causes of malnutrition. The use of community nutrition volunteers and community platforms will be promoted to extend multi-sectoral services to households and communities.

Given the challenging context of reduced humanitarian funding and escalating needs, the cluster remains committed to ensuring the efficiency of its efforts. This includes optimizing partnerships, rationalizing the number and types of sites per county, and refining staffing per nutrition site. Integrating health and nutrition service delivery at mobile and static sites is a critical component of this strategy, along with ongoing monitoring to identify insecure and inaccessible areas that require rapid response mechanisms to enhance the timeliness of life-saving services.

Different strategies will be employed based on county priority. Counties facing severe deprivations and high levels of GAM will use diverse nutrition products for severely and moderately malnourished children. A new approach to managing waste will be implemented in counties with moderate deprivations and malnutrition rates. Counties with lower levels of deprivation and malnutrition will transition towards local government service provision, focusing on children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and high-risk moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).

"My little girl was sick and began to get thin. When they treated her infection, she got better, but was still thin. The nutrition team here helped her and look at her now playing and well."

- 31 year old mother of 3 year old girl, Naivasha IDP camp, Wau

A health worker screening a child for malnutrition in Malakal PoC site, Upper Nile State.

Malakal PoC site, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.

A health worker screening a child for malnutrition.

OCHA/Sarah Waiswa

Monitoring

The Nutrition cluster employs a multifaceted monitoring approach, combining field visits, routine data collection through the Nutrition Information System (NIF) and 5Ws, and surveys to understand and address the needs of affected populations. SMART surveys in priority areas gauge malnutrition prevalence and related factors. Biannual FSNMS surveys provide insights into acute malnutrition, service coverage, maternal, infant, and young child nutrition practices, and malnutrition drivers. Partners conduct mass mid-upper arm circumference screenings. Collaboration
with inter-sector/multi-sector assessments enhances effectiveness.

The detailed cluster strategy can be found online here

For more information on the cluster monitoring, please click here