Infant and Young Child Nutrition Policy and Guidelines.

The Infant and Young Child Nutrition Policy and Guidelines are a national sectoral text, supplemented by guidelines for its application. The two sections must be read together: the Policy comprises program goals and objectives, policy statements and a program implementation plan while the Guidelines spells out guidelines specific to the policy statements. The document objective is to guide program coordinators, managers, policy makers, health workers and other stakeholders dealing with infants, young children and mothers on how to implement nutrition program activities.
With a view to contribute to improved infant and young child nutrition for survival, growth and development, the policy sets out measures to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding among infants for the first 6 months of life; to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV caused by breastfeeding; to provide caregivers with knowledge and enhance skills on timely, appropriate and adequate complementary feeding; to ensure that nutritional needs of infants and young children and their mothers in emergency affected populations are addressed; to strengthen nutrition surveillance at all levels; to enhance good nutritional status for all women of the reproductive age; to improve management of moderately and severely malnourished infants, young children and mothers; to increase access to micronutrients by infants, young children and mothers. The measures to be adopted for the realization of each of the above objectives are detailed by the policy statements and then further deepened throughout the Guidelines section.
In addition, the policy aims to direct and facilitate standardized implementation of nutrition services. To this end, it is planning to guide decision-making among service policy makers and service providers at all levels; to be used as a tool for advocacy; to increase access to nutrition services at all levels; to coordinate infant and young child nutrition services at all levels; to standardize nutrition service delivery.
In order for the policy to be successfully implemented, it seeks to set up a flexible system that ensures continuous review, implementation and quick responses. In order to facilitate an efficient and collaborative approach among stakeholders, it establishes a mechanism that provides stakeholders with a forum to meet formally, report progress, exchange ideas and plans, consult and coordinate. In order for the Ministry of Health and Population to effectively meet its mandate, several institutional capacity issues are addressed. These include human resource development, behavioural change communication, coordination and networking, resource mobilization, community support system, as well as monitoring and evaluation.