The Food Security Cluster (FSC) Preparedness and Resilience Working Group (PRWG) launched a call for good practices on preparedness and resilience-building approaches and activities among its partners.

Concern Worldwide initiated the Community Resilience to Acute Malnutrition programme in Chad to build resilience among the women, men and children of the Goz Beida sub-prefecture.

Goz Beida consists of grasslands and seasonal rivers. The majority of households practice a mix of rain-fed agriculture and livestock rearing, with a minority relying exclusively on pastoralism. The annual rains and cultivation period fall between May and October with harvest in November. The remaining months of the year, the area is extremely dry, and, in recent years, the rain pattern has become more unpredictable and irregular, affecting food security, health and nutrition by reducing the reliability and quality of harvests, affecting livestock practices, and increasing women’s workload and outward migration. With very low access to water and sanitation, poor infrastructure, very low breastfeeding rates coupled with very low child diet diversity, malnutrition emerged as a major burden. Regular surveys show that more than a third of children under five in the area are stunted, roughly 15 percent are wasted (even during post-harvest) and 3 percent suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

The project’s general aim was to improve the nutrition of young children and build community resilience to the shocks and stresses causing malnutrition and poor health. 

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