Country: Afghanistan Source: Nutrition Cluster Please refer to the attached file. The Community Nutrition Sentinel Site system works across 451 sites in 401 districts to track under‐five malnutrition. It uses simple mid‐ to upper‐arm measurements and checks for swelling. The system began in 2023 through close collaboration with partners and local communities. The findings show continued improvement in surveillance system maturity, with all 34 provinces and 401 districts reporting successfully validated data for the second consecutive cycle. Nationally, child wasting decreased from 9.6% in Q4 2025 to 8.5% in Q1 2026. However, the lean season has driven a rise in early childhood food insecurity—up from 81% to 85% overall, and moderate/severe food insecurity increasing from 40% to 47%. In Q1 2026, ten provinces are classified as serious or critical (GAM >10%), including Helmand (20.8%), Daikundi (17.2%), Zabul (16.7%), and Baghlan (15.6%). Children under two years account for 83% of SAM cases and 77% of MAM cases. In the meantime, UNICEF is conducting secondary data analysis to examine the association between early childhood food insecurity (EC-FI) and wasting.
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