Quality Improvement and Nutrition Program Trainings Help Mozambique’s Drought-Stricken Provinces Tackle Malnutrition

In 2015 and 2016, Mozambique experienced its worst drought in 35 years, with food insecurity, water shortages, and loss of income affecting 1.5 million people in the central and southern parts of the country. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that a severe food shortage in those regions was taking a toll on families, with an estimated 192,000 children and 87,000 pregnant and lactating women malnourished.

In response, the Government of Mozambique asked FANTA to train health workers to identify and treat malnutrition in 14 drought-affected districts in Sofala, Manica, Tete, Gaza, and Inhambane provinces. FANTA used a two-pronged approach: combining training in the government’s Nutrition Rehabilitation Program (Programa de Reabilitação Nutricional [PRN]), which the project was already supporting, with training in quality improvement (QI).