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Challenges of nutrition information and surveillance systems

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a) Sustainability is one of the biggest challenges to ensure continued effectiveness of the system after the initial donor support has been withdrawn. One of the main reasons surveillance systems fail is that national or local governments are unable to provide the level of resources needed to maintain a system.

b) Poor coordination among institutions for information usage in interventions. The challenge for many information systems is that they rely on a range of information sources that cut across several Government ministries including Health, Agriculture and Education. This means that no one ministry takes responsibility for the management of the system. Over time it may be
abandoned. One option is to establish a separate ministry with specific responsibility for disaster management and response that manages the system and takes responsibility for the information generated within it.
c) Lack of linkage of information to action. The collection of data that is not linked to action is pointless and unethical. Therefore, nutrition surveillance systems should be designed to maximize the likelihood of response, if one is needed. This requires an analysis of an optimal institutional location for the system as well as consideration of channels for disseminating information, and a forum in which the analysis will be presented. Furthermore, involvement of decision makers in the design and development of an analytical framework for using the information will strengthen credibility of the system and, as a result, the likelihood of response where necessary.
d) Quality of data collected is compromised. Like use of locals, the data collected is skewed in favor of certain interventions.
e) Socio-political issues. This is case where politics of the day affect operations in collection, and reporting of information. If information is associated with interventions then the information can be manipulated politically to ensure provision of food.

Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 12:45

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Challenges of nutrition information and surveillance systems

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