Nourishing Millions, an IFPRI-led project bringing together narratives of nutrition change, has released a new podcast episode highlighting a pilot initiative which leverages a community-based approach to tackle acute childhood malnutrition in Malawi. It is part of the Nourishing Millions podcast series, undertaken in partnership with the University of Michigan School of Public Health, which features the latest groundbreaking thinking about nutrition from top policymakers, researchers, and practitioners.
The new podcast, which is described in more detail in a blog post on the Nourishing Millions website, features Regine Kopplow, Senior Nutrition and Food Security Adviser, and Meghan Anson,Nutrition Advocacy Officer, both of Concern Worldwide. Together, they tell the story of how Malawi responded to crisis-levels of malnutrition among young children in 2002 by piloting a new approach: Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM). Instead of treating malnourished children within traditional hospital settings, CMAM empowered local communities and health volunteers to proactively treat- and prevent- the most severe forms of malnutrition. In Malawi, this innovative approach was able to increase the percentage of children reached and treated from 10 percent to 70 percent.
In the podcast, Ms. Kopplow and Ms. Anson discuss the current challenges and successes associated with CMAM, which has now been endorsed by partners such as WHO, UNSCN and UNICEF and rolled out to more than 60 countries around the world.
**Listen to the episode on SoundCloud or iTunes or click below. Previous episodes of the podcast series are available on the Nourishing Millions website.
