Preventing acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age

By 2028, the Benin government, with the support of partners, is committed to organising nutritional learning and recovery centres (FARN), through the scaling up of the Nutritional Supplementation Programme in order to contribute to reducing the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age. The programme will offer children under 5 years of age who are moderately malnourished and hypotrophic 10 consecutive days of renutrition. This intervention will be coupled with awareness-raising and counselling actions to promote behavioural changes and the adoption of good food and nutrition practices for their mothers. These activities will be implemented in the villages with Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance (Single Window for Social Protection [GUPS]) representatives. Progress will be monitored through routine data from the Ministry of Health. A nutrition survey will be carried out in 2027–28 to verify that the target has been reached and to analyse the effects and impacts of these interventions on the prevalence of acute malnutrition among children under 5 years of age.