Over the period from August 2010 to date, the FANTA-2 has created a niche in building capacity for nutrition security advocacy through engagement in operational research and strengthening the media involvement in nutrition. Some of the major achievements in this initiative are detailed as follows:
· On behalf of USAID Kampala and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), FANTA-2 designed and implemented a formative research on the “Considerations for aligning agriculture to improve nutritionoutcomes in South Western and Northern Uganda”. The research aims at providing an understanding of how nutrition outcomes can be improved through leveraging agricultural interventions in South Western and Northern Uganda.
“Fever” is the most common symptom of the diseases that kill 10 million children per year in families around the world. The main killer diseases malaria and pneumonia both present with fever and rapid breathing and these symptoms overlap in one third of sick children in Ugandan health centres, (see Figure below). Fever also overlaps with diarrhoea, the third killer disease. Without diagnostic tests health workers do not know which drug to give to one child out of three. In Uganda where more than 10% of children die before their fifth birthday we have found that many children dying from pneumonia had indeed first been treated with malaria drugs. And Oral Rehydration Solution including zinc is rarely given in fever treatment despite the symptom overlap with fever. 