Nutrition in Child Survival Programs : Exploiting the Linkages

Malnutrition is a challenge in many developing countries but very often affected countries hardly exploit linkages in existing primary health care structures in their interventions. The author used the case of Botswana to investigate the existence and utilization of linkages between Child Survival Programs (CSP) and strategies for alleviating malnutrition in children 0-5 years of age. The author examined the use of routine dietary and nutrition screening in the curative and preventive clinics (Growth Monitoring, Supplementary Feeding and Immunization Programs) of the CSP because these are CSP components that are designed to address childhood illnesses and nutrition problems in children, both of which explain over 70% of the variance in the mortality of children 0-5 years worldwide. The author observed minimal linkages between the curative and preventive arms of the CSP in Botswana. This lack of adequate linkages between the programs may be an important explanatory factor in the persistence of malnutrition in children who have access to CSP in Botswana. Recommendations for establishing simple linkages between CSP are discussed.