National Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Strategy 2015-2024.

The National Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Strategy is a ten-year document providing a framework through which the government will influence actions to improve IYCF practices and services in Sudan. Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) programming is an intervention that can have a significant impact on reducing mortality and morbidity in young children due to undernutrition and other related diseases. The overall goal of the Strategy is to improve through optimal feeding the nutritional status, growth and development, health, and thus the survival of infants and young children. The specific objectives are (i) create a supportive environment including political commitment, multi-sectorail coordination among government, international organizations and other concerned parties toward optimal feeding practices for infants and young children; (ii) build capacity, increase knowledge and skills of health workers to provide pregnant women and lactating mothers with support to improve optimal IYCF practices as part of the basic health package; (iii) equip communities, households with knowledge, capacity, and skills to support pregnant women and lactating mothers to practice optimal IYCF practices among their communities and household. The strategic targets for 2024 focus on enacting new legislation to protect breastfeeding, increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates and good complementary feeding to 70%, expanding IYCF services in health facilities to 70%, and engaging 80% of pregnant and lactating women in counseling. The related Action Plan also aims to reduce stunting by 4%, lower the rate of low birth weight by 20%, and maintain childhood wasting below 10%. The IYCF Strategy is based on the following 8 key approaches to improve child nutrition (1) integrating IYCF interventions into national policies and other sectors like agriculture and education; (2) strengthening the enforcement of legislation on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes; (3) protecting the rights of working mothers by advocating for longer maternity leave; (4) ensuring that infant and complementary foods meet safety and nutritional standards; (5) implementing the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in all health facilities9; (6) improving the skills of health providers; (7) establishing community-based support networks for mothers; (8) addressing the unique challenges of IYCF in difficult circumstances, such as HIV-affected families, emergencies, and cases of child malnutrition.
The Strategy also reflects the obligations and responsibilities for the stakeholders of IYCF services. Therefore, it gives detailed roles and accountability of different partners - within the Federal Ministry of Health, governmental bodies, UN, other international bodies, NGOs, as well as the community level partners. Monitoring and evaluation of the IYCF strategy is continuous and aims to provide the management and other IYCF field stakeholders with early indications of progress in the achievement of results and objectives.