Attachments
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pekua Upazila is located in South-eastern part of Bangladesh. It is bounded by Banshkhali Upazila on the north, Moheshkhali Upazila on the south, Chakaria Upazila on the east, Kutubdia Channel on the west. Action Against Hunger used to implement OTP programme for children through SARPV from January 2020 till March 2021. However, SARPV has still been implementing TSFP programme for both children and PLW with the support from WFP, but currently there is no SAM treatment programme in the Upazila. The nutrition situation is being regularly monitored in this area by following up of program data and conducting regular SMART nutrition surveys.
A SMART survey was conducted in Pekua Upazila between 23rd and 30th June 2021. The survey applied a cross-sectional study design using a two-stage cluster sampling approach based on the probability proportional to population size. This survey was a follow up to a similar one conducted in April 2019 as baseline by UNICEF. The survey was to monitor the trends and changes in the indicators over the past two years with the main objective being to assess the nutrition status of children aged 6-59 months in the Upazila. The survey also sought to determine the crude and under five mortality rates in the Upazila. To achieve this, the survey calculated a sample size of 369 children (6-59 months) and 570 households for the anthropometry survey and 2,865 persons and 569 households for the mortality survey. A total of 41 clusters/villages were determined for representativeness. In stage 1, clusters/villages were selected randomly based on probability proportionate to population size (PPS principle) using Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) software updated version 11th January 2020. In stage 2, simple random sampling was used to select 14 households in each selected cluster. Table 1 summarizes the survey findings.