A Review of Donor and Government Financing Arrangements
This review is concerned with the financing arrangements
for programmes that address acute malnutrition at scale
through the community-based management of acute
malnutrition (CMAM). The CMAM approach is geared
towards the early detection, treatment and counselling of
moderately and severely acutely malnourished children, in
the community, by community agents.
Until the late 1990s, treatment of severe acute malnutrition
(SAM) was through therapeutic feeding centres in hospitals
and healthcare centres. Performance was poor, coverage
was extremely limited (less than 5% of the SAM population),
mortality was often in excess of 30% and recovery rates
were low. The CMAM approach was first piloted in Ethiopia
in 1999 as an alternative to the centre-based model.
Development of the approach offered the prospect of
dramatically increased access to successful treatment and
coverage.