Using SLEAC as a wide-area survey method

Abstract

In 2010, UNICEF approached VALID International Ltd. to design and conduct a national coverage survey of the government-run community based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) programme in Sierra Leone. Discussions with UNICEF and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health indicated that a spatially exhaustive set of SLEAC surveys (i.e. a SLEAC survey performed in every health district) augmented by one or two targeted SQUEAC investigations would provide the information needed by both UNICEF and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health. The idea of using the two methods together in this way is to use SLEAC to identify district programmes achieving low and high coverage and to use SQUEAC to investigate the reasons for the observed levels of coverage.