Akobo East SMART Survey Report-South Sudan

Akobo County is located in the northeastern corner of Jonglei State and borders Nyirol, Uror, Pibor and Pochalla Counties in Jonglei State, Ulang County in Upper Nile State to the north and Ethiopia to the east. The county has an estimated population of 226,978 in 2022 (South Sudan IPC report, November 2022). The county was projected to be in IPC 4 for both AFI and AMN according to 2022 IPC report of South Sudan. The last SMART survey conducted in Akobo East by IMC during June 2018 showed a very high GAM prevalence of 16.1% based on WHZ and presence of bilateral pitting oedema. Given the time lag, Save the Children South Sudan conducted an integrated SMART survey in Akobo East during June 2023 in order to understand the current nutrition situation and the associated causal factors among children under five years old to trigger response.
With funding from UNICEF and WFP complemented by BHA and Internal fund, Save the Children South Sudan is currently implementing nutrition program embedded to functional health facilities supported by the MoH.
The overall objective of this survey was to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months old and mortality rates among populations in Akobo East.
The survey findings showed a very high GAM rate of 27.9% and SAM rate of 5.6% with aggravating factors (high prevalence of child morbidity, poor infant and young child feeding practices, poor FSL and WASH situation) in the survey areas. Moreover, overall crude and under-five mortality rates were reported at 0.68 and 0.63 respectively.