Link NCA Wag Himra, Ethiopia

Wag Himra zone in northeastern Amhara, known for drought and famines in 1974 and 1985, has a rural, food-insecure population heavily dependent on aid. The EU RESET programme aims to build resilience among vulnerable communities, but data on the causes of undernutrition in the area was lacking. Action Against Hunger conducted a Link NCA study in the Sekota and Dehana woredas to understand the factors driving undernutrition and develop a plan to improve nutritional security in Wag Himra. The analyses undertaken during this Link NCA study allowed to identify 17 risk factors, believed to have an impact on the incidence of undernutrition in the zone of study.

Following a triangulationof data from diverse sources, four (4) risk factors were identified as having a major impact, nine(9) risk factors were classified as having an important impact and three (3) risk factors were judgedto have a minor impact on the incidence of undernutrition in the zone of study. In addition, one(1) risk factor was interpreted as not having an influence on the incidence of undernutrition in the zone of study.
Among the major risk factors, three were identified in the sector of water, sanitation and hygiene, namely poor access to water, poor hygiene and sanitation practices and unhygienic play area for children, while the last major risk factor, poor complementary feeding practices of children 6-23 months, was identified in the sector of health and nutrition.