Yemen Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan (MSNAP).

This Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan is a nationwide document aiming at reducing all forms of malnutrition, ensuring that all Yemeni children reach their full potential to live a healthy life that allows them to contribute to the socioeconomic development of their families, communities and country. Reduction of malnutrition will be achieved through a multi-sectoral approach by (i) addressing its different causes and bringing multiple sectors and actors together to collaborate to enhance synergies and complementarities; (ii) aligning between developmental programming and humanitarian responses for more efficient use of resources and longer-term programmatic support; (iii) focusing on the nutritionally most vulnerable and insecure populations for better targeting and prioritization; (iv) empowering and mobilizing communities for an uptake of services, as well as adopting a gender-sensitive planning and implementation approach. The MSNAP is structured around three main priority areas (1) increase in access and utilization of nutrition-specific services and interventions (improving infant and young child feeding practices, preventative and curative nutrition, maternal and child health and nutrition interventions); (2) increase in access to nutrition-sensitive activities (concerning social protection, food production, processing and retail, fisheries, water, sanitation and hygiene, and education and school-based interventions); (3) strengthening government leadership, national polices and capacities (improving sectoral policies and capacities of sectors involved, strengthening multi-sectoral platforms, coordination and collaboration across sectors and ensuring accountability of governmental and partner organizations). Each priority area comprises goals, objectives and a corresponding set of activities organized by sectoral responsibilities. Furthermore, the agriculture-related activities in this Plan take into account a range of potential impact pathways with nutrition, including production and productivity of crops and livestock and the targeting of nutritionally vulnerable groups, as well as support of activities along the value chain for production and consumption of nutritious foods.
To increase production in order to positively affect food security, the MSNAP proposes to (i) increase production, productivity and quality of crops; (ii) increase production, health and quality of livestock; (iii) increase sustainable irrigation and on-site farm water management where these factors are significant determinants of malnutrition; (iv) support and scale up small-scale food production, processing and retail; (v) increase fish catch, processing, preservation and consumption.
A more adequate nutrition can be achieved through (i) the improvement of Infant and Yung Children Feeding practices by updating guidance and increasing awareness of their importance; (ii) the increasing in the percentage of children with appropriate initiation and duration of breastfeeding and initiation, diversity, quantity and quality of complementary foods;(iii) the scale up of coverage and quality of supplementary feeding programs; (iv) the scale up of coverage and quality of services for management of acute malnutrition; (v) provision of multiple micronutrient supplementation to populations vulnerable to deficiencies; (vi) adequate dietetic support provided through health services; (vii) better access and utilization of family planning support and nutrition-sensitive pre- and postnatal care; (viii) the scale up of availability of primary healthcare services and increased immunization coverage; (ix) increased understanding and awareness around good dietary, food safety and hygiene practices; (x) increased production and consumption of iodine-, iron- and folate-fortified foods; (xi) improved quantity, quality and diversity of foods consumed, in particular nutrient-rich vegetables and grains, fish, animal-sourced foods and fortified foods; (xii) increased support of good nutrition and health of pupils and their families through school-based interventions.
For a more inclusive economic and social growth, the Plan envisages to (i) increase incomes and consumption through cash assistance and provision of temporary employment opportunities; (ii) improve market infrastructure for fish; (iii) increase sustainability and resilience of livelihoods for small-scale fishing communities; (iv) improve access to safe and adequate water and sanitation services, clean environments and improved hygiene practices; (v) adopt a gender-sensitive planning and implementation approach responding to the needs of women, men, girls and boys.
As for Governance, the Scaling Up Nutrition National Steering Committee (SUN NSC) in Yemen, which is organized under Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC), provides oversight and coordinates nutrition matters in general and anything relating to the MSNAP in particular. It comprises representatives of relevant government entities, academia and the private sector, as well as representatives of the different national SUN networks. Existing structures at the governorate level will be leveraged to serve as the foundation to improve the multi-sectoral as well as the multi-stakeholder coordination for nutrition. Line ministries directly involved in service implementation will have designated units/departments to coordinate nutrition-related activities across different levels (e.g. central, governorate). The document suggests also to establish and operationalize the Department of Food Safety.