COMCEC
Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
1.5. Best Practices to Address Malnutrition
Global and Regional Frameworks to Address Malnutrition
Community Management ofAcute Malnutrition
Treatment of acute malnutrition (wasting] was often facility-based and carried out by medical
staff, meaning that if a child was acutely malnourished, s/he would have to be brought to a
clinic or hospital for treatment. In recent years this approach has changed to a community
based model, using a network of volunteers who are responsible for identifying malnourished
children. This has been made easier with the use of coloured bands which measure the mid­
upper arm circumference (MUAC) and show green for a healthy child, orange for a moderately
malnourished child and red for severe malnutrition. Once identified, most children (with the
exception of those with additional complications such as oedema] can be treated at home with
ready to use therapeutic foods (RUTF). This model, known as the community management of
acute malnutrition (CMAM] has revolutionised the way acute malnutrition is treated and
allows many more children to receive treatment than the facility-based model.
UNREACH
REACH was established in 2008 by the Food and Agricultural Organisation , the United
Nations Children's Fund , the World Food Programme , and the World Health
Organization to assist governments of countries with a high burden of child and
maternal undernutrition to accelerate the scale-up of food and nutrition actions. The
International Fund for Agricultural Development later joined REACH, extending an
advisory role at the global level. REACHwas originally meant to strengthen UN efforts towards
ending poverty and hunger by 2015, the first of the eight UNMillennium Development Goals.
Yet, its action spans beyond 2015 as hunger remains a problem, and nutrition issues are given
an even stronger emphasis since 2015.
At present, REACH operates in 12 countries at varying degrees of intensity, namely:
urundi, Chad
EACH country engagements are led by neutral facilitators, with some
facilitators hosted by government offices, such as the Office of the President, Office of the
Prime Minister or one of the sector ministries and others hosted by one of the UN partner
agencies.
The SUNMovement
One key international effort, which has served to increase the profile of nutrition globally, was
the launch of The Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN] Movement in 2010. The SUN movement seeks to
bring together key stakeholders, including country governments, donors, UN agencies, civil
society, and in some countries, business actors to address the challenges of undernutrition. To
date, 57 countries have joined the SUNmovement including 26 OIC countries. The specific OIC
countries that are also members of SUN can be seen i below:
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