Country: Guatemala

Project Name: Integrated Nutrition Surveillance System (SIVIM)

Objective/Purpose:

To develop an integrated nutrition and maternal child health surveillance system that provides representative, high quality, and timely process and impact data annually.

SIVIM fills a critical surveillance gap and meets the program information needs of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPS), USAID, and other key partners. This information will be used to monitor changes in key interventions and evaluate progress. SIVIM is a flexible system that can incorporate new content. Pilot data collection is scheduled for fall 2012 with dissemination of the preliminary report planned for 2013.

Program Background:

Chronic under nutrition (stunting), anemia, obesity, maternal mortality and perinatal mortality are leading public health problems in Guatemala and multiple interventions are implemented, or under development, to address these issues. The only source of representative, high quality data for anthropometry, anemia, and maternal child health is collected only every 4-5 years. The need for timely, representative, high quality data has led to this collaboration. In this surveillance system, data will be collected through continuous household surveys. The SIVIM system will provide annual representative data for key programmatic nutrition and maternal child health process and outcome indicators. The core content covers fertility, child mortality, infant and young child feeding, child health, maternal and perinatal health, women’s health, and household level indicators.

Potential Impact:

• The system will provide nationally representative estimates and be an important source of timely programmatic data for decision-making and policy making
• The costs of the system are lower compared to high quality surveys carried out by contractors in country. The aim of this lower cost model is to increase the sustainability of the system
• The continuous household nutrition/maternal child health surveillance system has potential to serve as a useful model for other countries around the world and a similar system is currently under development in two African countries

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