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According to the 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO 2022), 5.5 million mothers and children are considered to be in need of life-saving nutrition services in Syria.
In general, the determinants of malnutrition continue to be on the rise, and as a direct consequence, the nutrition status deteriorated across Syria- Northwest (NWS), not an exception.
The 2022 HNO indicated increased people in Need (PIN) numbers across different malnutrition parameters since 2020. For instance, chronic malnutrition or stunting increased by 4%, Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) cases (increased by 29%), and MAM cases (increased by 44.7%); for PLWs, the number of PLWs in need for malnutrition treatment was approximately 265,000. According to HNO 2022, in NWS, in recent years and especially since the pandemic, a rising trend was seen in acute malnutrition; according to the SMART survey conducted by PAC in June 2021, the prevalence of chronic malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months increased from 19% to 24.5 % between May 2019 and June 2021 in Northwest Syria in Aleppo and Idlib governorates. The prevalence of Global Acute Malnutrition GAM increased from 0.9 per cent to 4.7 per cent over the same period. And the combined GAM prevalence was 6.0%. Among PLWs, the prevalence of acute malnutrition across northwest Syria is 12.4 per cent. There are also significant differences across northwest Syria, Idleb more than Aleppo. According to the same survey, Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices were found to be sub-optimal. The high burden of stunting in children is linked to sub-optimal uptake of appropriate IYCF practices, which are crucial for healthy child development and survival. Only 53.4% of children under six months are exclusively breastfed, while only 10.8% consume the Minimal Acceptable Diet (MAD) in NWS. Micronutrient deficiency is another major problem; NWS 2021 SMART survey showed that the anemia rate was 53.8% among targeted WRA women of reproductive age (15 -49 years) and 46% among children 6 – 59 months.