Action Against Hunger has been implementing multisectoral programmes focusing on health, nutrition, food security and livelihoods, WASH, and child protection across various states in South Sudan. In Fangak County, Action Against Hunger implements a 5-year, multi-sectoral project, which is part of its Right2Grow strategic partnership, comprising four national NGOs (CIDO, UNIDOR, SPEDP and CRC) and four international NGOs (Save the Children, World Vision, Action Against Hunger and CEGAA). The Link NCA Nutrition Causal Analysis was conducted from September 2023 to August 2024 aiming to understand the causal mechanisms of undernutrition, notably wasting, in order to improve the relevance and efficiency of nutritional security programming.

Out of 20 studied risk factors, five were identified as having a major impact on the prevalence of undernutrition (wasting) in the study area, namely limited access to health services, low nutritional status of women, low access to quality diet, low access to income sources and inadequate accessibility, availability and quality of water at household level.

Based on available data (SMART 2024), statistical associations through logistic and linear regressions allowed us to observe risk factors and protective factors for acute malnutrition (wasting).

Risk factors for wasting included a distance to a water point, home delivery and debts at household level. Protective factors included living in a household with higher number of cattle and higher diet diversity score, specifically consuming meat (including fish) or oil/fat. Additionally, children that were initiated to breastfeeding within one hour from birth or those that were observed having a clean face and body at the time of the survey were also less likely to be wasted.