Impact of nutrition education centers on food and nutrition security in Kamuli District, Uganda

Thumbnail Image
Date
2019-01-01
Authors
Ikendi, Samuel
Major Professor
Advisor
Francis Y. Owusu
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
Community and Regional Planning

Community and regional planning is a professional field of study aimed at assessing the ever-changing socioeconomic and physical environments of our communities and planning for their future. Planners evaluate and seize opportunities to understand and solve problems. Most planners work at the local level, but they are concerned with issues that affect the world: the preservation and enhancement of the quality of life in a community, the protection of the environment, the promotion of equitable economic opportunity; and the management of growth and change of all kinds.

History
The Department of Community and Regional Planning was established in 1978 when it was split from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Community Planning.

Dates of Existence
1978–present

Related Units

Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Department
Community and Regional Planning
Abstract

Achieving food and nutrition security is among the goals of many public-private partnerships in Uganda. This study examined the impacts of Nutrition Education Centers’ (NECs) training programs on food and nutrition security in Kamuli, Uganda. Using a comparative approach, the study explored the relationship between participants’ affiliation with NECs, dimensions and quality of their participation, as well as their household characteristics, and food and nutrition security. The study was based on survey of 454 households, 606 children aged 0-59 months from two sub-counties. Anthropometric measures were also taken off caretakers, children, which were transformed into Z-score using WHO-Anthro. Respondents were categorized into NEC participants (NEC and Non-NEC clients) and Non-participants and data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS 24. Results showed that Non-NEC clients were more food secure and had better dietary diversity than NEC clients and Non-participants, however, their caloric intake was not higher than the former. Food security was also influenced by household’s participation in programs, availability of livestock, land acreage owned, WASH facilities conditions, meals eaten during food scarcity, time taken to collect water, membership of burials and festival groups, and days of illness of adult males. For nutrition security, NEC clients and Non-participants mothers had better health than Non-NEC clients. However, the former had more underweight mothers than the two groups. Incidence of underweight was associated with education and age at first pregnancy. Children of Non-participants and NEC clients had higher cases of stunting and underweight than Non-NEC. Wasting significantly affected NEC and Non-NEC than Non-participants. Recommendations for improving the program include participatory planning involving community, cultural and government officials in design of activities, decision making to strengthen implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Expanding microfinance project to increase livestock distribution and continue to empower households in records keeping involving production. Help farmers access high value staple crops to increase food production and incomes, in addition to encouraging clients to have vegetable gardens. Collaborating with Water User Committees, district health, and development departments to improve monitoring households’ WASH facilities. Collaboration with health workers, Village Health Trainers to educate and encourage households to adopt improved maternity practices and monitoring of children.

Comments
Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Source
Subject Categories
Copyright
Wed May 01 00:00:00 UTC 2019