State of SAM Coverage – An overview from 2013 & 2014
This report is an overview of treatment coverage which reflects the accessibility and use of therapeutic programs between 2013 and 2014.
1st January 2015
Coverage Monitoring Network
Programme coverage is one of the most useful and reliable indicators to measure the performance of Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programmes. There are many indicators (e.g. cure rates, average length of stay, average weight gain) to measure effectiveness, but only treatmentcoverage provides a reliable measure of impact, by measuring the proportion of needs met by an intervention. The recent development of comprehensive and innovative coverage monitoring tools (including SQUEAC and SLEAC) by Valid International/Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) has provided the means by which to measure programme coverage practically and easily. The importance of coverage has been recognised in the Lancet and by the SUN movement. Treatment has significantly increased from approximately 1,000,000 in 2009 to 2,900,000 in 2012 . To better understand the challenges to service delivery, The State of SAM Coverage was released in 2012. Since then there have been no global updates. The 2012 report estimated that 7 to 13 per cent of the SAM caseload was being treated.
It is still difficult to calculate a global number, due to the limited use of direct estimations at national level and the unavailability of nutrition information. This report will therefore focus on direct estimates at subnational level collected by the Coverage Monitoring Network (CMN). This paper does not attempt to provide global data or an in-depth view of the coverage situation around the world. Given the lack of access to the former, this document explores, in a synthesised format, available direct coverage estimations.
The majority of the data is derived from assessments using the Semi-Quantitative Evaluation of Access and Coverage (SQUEAC) or Simplified LQAS Evaluation of Access and Coverage (SLEAC) methods. This data is compiled by the CMN into a global database. Different indicators can be used to evaluate coverage. The following report focuses on treatment coverage which reflects the accessibility and use of therapeutic programs. Geographical coverage is also useful to measure the availability of services; however this data was not available.