Project News

Project for Strengthening Maternal and Child Nutrition Services (abbreviated as ProNUT) started in May 2021. It is a 3-year JICA technical cooperation project aiming to improve Mozambique's maternal and child nutrition status. ProNUT will develop a maternal and child health handbook (MCHHB) that fits into Mozambique's context and provide capacity building activities for health workers and community health workers (called APE in Mozambique) to utilize the MCHHB for their service at health facilities and communities.

Although Mozambique is not an exception to the COVID-19 Pandemic and there have been mandatory social distancing measures, the first Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting was held online on 19th August 2021. It was attended by 40 participants, including the National Deputy Director of the Public Health, Heads from the Nutrition Department, the MCH Department, and the National APE Program, representatives from Gaza and Niassa Provincial Health Directorates, representatives from the pilot districts of each province, and representatives from the JICA Mozambique Office.

National Deputy Director of the Public Health delivered opening remarks, followed by the Chief Representative of the JICA Mozambique Office. While the head of the Nutrition Department facilitated the meeting, the Head of the APE Program made a brief slide presentation about ProNUT. The project annual activity plan and the terms of reference (TOR) on the project management structure from the central to the provincial levels were approved in the meeting. In the end, the head of the MCH Department made closing remarks.

ProNUT has taken off on its journey and our experts from both Japan and Mozambique will work hard to achieve the project goals.

Picture taken during the 1st JCC held online