Overview
In March 2013 the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health, WHO and UNICEF began operationalizing a sentinel site based national nutrition surveillance sys-tem (NNSS) in coordination and partnership with the Basic Package for Health Services (BPHS) and the Essential Package for Health Services (EPHS) imple-menters and other service providers. Funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), the project seeks to estab-lish a nutrition surveillance system that covers all 34 provinces of the country. A well-functioning nutri-tion surveillance system provides timely and reliable information which helps the government and part-ners to effectively plan and implement maternal, neo-natal and child health and nutrition programs. Ulti-mately, the project seeks to increase access to equita-ble and gender-sensitive health and nutrition services to mothers and children, while ensuring that their health needs are met and vulnerabilities reduced.