Lesotho Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project

The development objective of the Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project for Lesotho is to increase the utilization and quality of key nutrition and health services and improve selected nutrition behaviors known to reduce stunting. The project comprises of four components. The first component, community-based health and nutrition services will support a package of nutrition-specific interventions targeted towards women, children, and adolescents that will be implemented at the community level. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthening the community level functions; and (ii) improving adolescent health and nutrition. The second component, district level health system strengthening aims to improve the capacity of government and primary and secondary health care providers to deliver better-quality reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N) services in an efficient and effective manner. It consists of following sub-components: (i) quality improvement grant; and (ii) quality improvement training and equipment. The third component, strengthen government stewardship, project management, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) consists of following sub-components: (i) building a nutrition-enabling environment through strengthening the food and nutrition coordinating office (FNCO); (ii) Ministry of Health (MOH) stewardship and M and E capacities; and (iii) project management. The fourth component, contingency emergency response component (CERC) will contribute to providing immediate and effective response to the said crisis or emergency under this CERC.