[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1135, 259], "category": "Text", "text": "short height, and anaemia was higher in adolescents compared to other age groups sampled in the surveys utilized. It also notes increased levels of overweight and obesity, creating the “triple burden of malnutrition.” Policy instruments such as the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan 2022-2026 (NFNSP) and the new Adolescents health strategic plan recognizes adolescents as a group in nutritionally vulnerable situation."}, {"bbox": [96, 259, 1135, 420], "category": "Text", "text": "A broader comparative documentation review conducted by UNICEF³⁷ shows evidence on the linkages between gender-based violence and nutrition. These studies demonstrated that girls who experienced childhood sexual abuse were more likely to be affected by overweight/obesity in adolescence. It also highlights that girls who were subjected to child marriage were also significantly more likely to have anaemia. The same study highlighted that intimate partner violence in adolescents was associated with three categories of childhood nutrition outcomes: low birthweight; breastfeeding practices, and growth indicators (stunting, wasting and/or underweight)."}, {"bbox": [96, 443, 429, 471], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Priority area 6 - Social Protection"}, {"bbox": [96, 496, 1135, 738], "category": "Text", "text": "During the last years the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS), in charge of the Government's social protection policies, has been working intensively on the Social Cash Transfer, the most important social protection programme in the country. The few District Social Welfare Officers (DSWOs) are absorbed by the selection and monitoring of people in the most vulnerable situation enrolled in this programme, with little time left to consecrate to malnutrition cases, Violence Against Children (VAC), GBV, child protection, people living with disabilities, etc. This issue is recognised by all stakeholders working in social protection and the MCDSS has initiated the recruitment of new officers to adequately fulfil their mandate on case management. Despite good initiatives such as the approval in February 2023 of the Community and Statutory Case Management Guidelines, the response is still very fragmented and inefficient."}, {"bbox": [96, 762, 295, 791], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Integrated response"}, {"bbox": [96, 814, 1135, 1136], "category": "Text", "text": "When it comes to a comprehensive analysis of the Human Development factor in Zambia, all elements above need to be taken into consideration, due to the strong interlinkages between them. Low access to quality ECE, poor health and nutrition among the children and low family support, lead invariably to underperformance in school and often to drop out. SGBV, teen pregnancies and child marriages cause many teenage girls to drop out of school and thus continuing the vicious circle of poverty, where their children are likely to follow the same path. Early pregnancy also correlates with low weight babies and poor child's neurodevelopment, jeopardising from the very start the objective of early childhood development. Children born of adolescent mothers are more likely to be stunted, perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. ECE has the potential to be a building block for climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainable development given its cross-cutting nature that has the power to transform the lives of our youngest populations. The programme will support the inclusion of climate change, environment, and disaster risk reduction in ECE policies, financing and implementation, with a particular focus on the curriculum, policy development and the infrastructure components."}, {"bbox": [96, 1159, 1135, 1374], "category": "Text", "text": "The integrated nature of the proposed action, dealing both with improving Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) conditions and opportunities, and with supporting adolescents to remain in school or reintegrating school in the case of teen mothers, has the advantage of a full ranged support that tackles root causes and immediate effects of the problems identified, for better response efficiency. The choice of the geographical area targeted by the action (two Zambian provinces, North Western and Luapula) was made through a consultative process with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the Cooperating Partners (CPs), taking into account the Human Development statistics (e.g. very high prevalence of teen pregnancies in both Luapula – 29% and North Western – 35.7%) and existing programmes, both governmental and CP financed."}, {"bbox": [96, 1397, 1135, 1531], "category": "Text", "text": "The programme will promote the adaptation of strategic infrastructure promoting the use of land-use planning, the mainstreaming of climate change in health, environment, water and sanitation policies, and the use of decentralised climate information for early warning and sustainable management of infrastructure development and public health. The programme will also take into account the commitments and solutions identified by Zambia in the 2021 Nationally Determined Contribution."}, {"bbox": [85, 1595, 1143, 1644], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁷ Evidence on the linkages between gender-based violence and nutrition: summary of findings specific to adolescents girl, UNICEF December 2022."}, {"bbox": [1027, 1681, 1144, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 10 of 34"}]