Preventing Malnutrition in Children under 2 Approach

The Preventing Malnutrition in Children under 2 Approach (PM2A) is a food-assisted approach to reducing the prevalence of child malnutrition by targeting a package of health and nutrition interventions to all pregnant women, mothers of children 0-23 months and children under 2 in food-insecure program areas, regardless of nutritional status. Because they are the most nutritionally-vulnerable members of the population, the program targets everyone in these groups to protect children from malnutrition and its long-term consequences.

This preventive approach integrates best practices in maternal and child health and nutrition (MCHN) programming and combines them with food assistance. It is an essential part of a development food assistance program’s MCHN component, which may also include activities such as recuperative interventions or water and sanitation activities. This preventive approach, along with the rest of a development program’s MCHN component, should be consistently linked with the program’s agriculture and livelihoods components as well as with complementary services provided by the government or other organizations operating in the program area.

The following are some helpful documents to help incorporate the preventive approach into development food assistance programs:

• FY 2012: Questions and Answers on Health and Nutrition Programming: Title II Development Programs
• Title II technical reference materials TRM-01: preventing malnutrition in children under 2 approach (PM2A) -- a food-assisted approach
• FY 2010 Food for Peace Response to Comments, Prevention of Malnutrition in under Twos Approach (PM2A)
• Resources through the FANTA-III Project