This survey was conducted in Afar region Zone 2, Abala Woreda, by Goal Ethiopia among selected clusters of children aged 6 and 59 months. The objective of this survey was to estimate the prevalence of acute and chronic malnutrition, examine the current health status of the survey population by considering mortality and morbidity rates and child vitamin A supplementation and vaccination status, and assess the food security situation among children aged 6 to 59 months. The findings of this survey revealed the followoing.

1. A total of 8.4% of them were classified as global acute malnutrition (GAM), which includes 0.8% of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The crude mortality rate and under-five mortality rate were estimated at 0.10 and 0.29 deaths/10,000/day respectively. About 35.1% of the children suffered from diarrhea, 28.8% from ARI/cough, and 16.2% from fever. The percentage of children vaccinated against measles, TB, and who received vitamin A in the last 6 months were  5.1 %, 35.8%, and 80.1% of the respondents respectively. Currently, the food security situation of the households is deteriorating. Especially in the coming months approaching to the hunger season (March-June), the food stocks will be more depleted. As per the current survey findings, nearly two-thirds (62.9%) of the interviewed households rely on the market for purchasing to fulfill their food requirements at the household level. The major sources of cash income at the time of the survey were from the sale of coffee (25.7%), petty trade (19.4%), the sale of animals (18.3%), from the sale of own production (6.9%), sale of labor (6.3%), sale of animal product (4.6%), and from the sale of handcrafts (4.3%). While normally at the time of the survey the main sources of cash income for the interviewed households were from sale coffee (28.6%), sale of own production (24.6%), petty trade (16.6%), sale of animals (11.4%), sale of labor (5.7%), and from the sale of animal products (3.4%).
2. The households having animals more than three quarters (86.6%) of the households reported the physical condition of their animals to be good/average. About 34.2% travel more than 2 hours to reach the nearest marketplace to purchase and/or sell food and animals.
3. Currently, the food security situation of the households is deteriorating. Especially in the coming months approaching the hunger season (March-June), household food stocks are anticipated to deplete more. It is expected that most of the households will be exposed to food scarcity in the coming months until the next Belg season (June/July 2010).
4. Regarding health care accessibility; 62.9% of the communities in the surveyed rural villages travel less than two hours while the rest of the communities travel more than two hours to seek medical attention to the nearest health facility.  Of the total 15.1% of the surveyed children were sick in the two weeks prior to the survey period. The common illnesses that affect the health situation of under-five children were diarrhea (35.1%) cough (28.8%), fever (16.2%), and malaria (5.4%). Only 37.6% of the children visited a health facility for treatment.
5. From the interviewed communities 65.7% in the surveyed villages use an unsafe water source for drinking, 43.4% of the interviewed households use pit latrine, and 6.9% waste disposal and 2.3% of the households have a handwashing facility in their compound. All of the children had been breastfed and 95.7% of the children were exclusively breastfeeding but the rest of the children already introduced weaning food.

• Nutrition
• malnutrition
• acute malnutrition
• vaccination
• measles
• TB
• water
• survey
• Abaya Woreda
• Borena Zone
• Oromia region

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The 2010 dataset on the nutrition survey was conducted by Goal Ethiopia using the two-stage cluster sampling approach in the Oromia region, Borena zone, and Abaya Woreda among 595 households and 737 children aged 6-59 months conducted between February 2 to March 5, 2010. The data set captures information on the prevalence of global acute malnutrition or nutritional status, morbidity status, health-seeking condition,  child vaccination, and supplementation includes vaccinated against measles, TB, and Vitamin A supplementation, household characteristics including the condition of food security, accessibility to water, and community discussion which includes the level of access to health facilities, condition of the pasture, availability of water for livestock, and the condition of livestock. Generally, the objective of the survey was to estimate the prevalence of acute and chronic malnutrition, examine the current health status of the survey population by considering mortality and morbidity rates and child vitamin A supplementation and vaccination status, and assess the food security situation among children aged 6 to 59 months (or 65-<110cm in height).

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