Call for Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Interventions (Cameroon)

Deadline: 28-Sep-2026

The World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking partners to implement integrated nutrition interventions in Cameroon’s Adamawa and North regions to prevent malnutrition among vulnerable populations. The initiative focuses on children aged 6–23 months, pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, refugees, host communities, and other at-risk groups through specialized nutritious foods, behavior-change activities, community-based screening, Positive Deviance Hearths, capacity building, and nutrition monitoring. The World Food Programme is inviting organizations and potential implementing partners to express their interest in delivering a comprehensive package of nutrition interventions in the Adamawa and North regions of Cameroon. The initiative aims to prevent and reduce malnutrition among vulnerable populations by combining nutrition assistance with community engagement, behavior-change activities, early detection, referral, and capacity strengthening. The approach is designed to address immediate nutritional needs while also promoting sustainable nutrition, childcare, and hygiene practices within households and communities. The program focuses on vulnerable populations who face increased risks of malnutrition.

Priority groups include:

The initiative also addresses the nutritional needs of both refugee and host populations in the targeted areas. The primary focus is on the Adamawa and North regions of Cameroon. The broader initiative also addresses nutritional needs among affected populations in Adamawa, East, and North regions, particularly refugees and host communities affected by the Central African crisis. Implementation will involve coordination with national and international technical partners. The program uses an integrated approach rather than relying on a single nutrition activity.

Key interventions include:

These components are intended to work together to strengthen both prevention and community-level management of malnutrition. An important component of the initiative is improving access to adequate and specialized nutritious foods for vulnerable groups. Nutrition support is particularly important during periods of increased nutritional requirements, including early childhood, pregnancy, and lactation. Partners will contribute to delivering nutrition interventions that address the needs of targeted populations within the program areas. The initiative places particular emphasis on children aged 6–23 months and on improving practices related to infant and young child feeding. Social and behavioral change activities will help promote positive feeding practices among caregivers and communities. The objective is to support families in adopting appropriate nutrition and care practices that can contribute to better child health and development. The program will establish and support functional Positive Deviance Hearths (PD Hearths) in targeted communities. Positive Deviance Hearths are community-based approaches that identify and promote locally appropriate practices that can help prevent and address child malnutrition. Under this initiative, PD Hearths will contribute to: The approach connects nutrition rehabilitation with practical household and community behaviors. Early identification of malnutrition is another key component of the initiative. The program seeks to strengthen community-based nutrition screening so that children and other vulnerable individuals at risk can be identified earlier.

Screening can support:

Strengthening community-level screening can help ensure that cases requiring additional support are identified and referred appropriately. The initiative also aims to strengthen the capacity of community and institutional actors involved in nutrition activities. Capacity-building efforts are intended to improve the prevention and management of malnutrition at community and institutional levels. Potential areas of strengthened capacity include: The initiative recognizes the nutritional needs of populations affected by the Central African crisis.

The program therefore addresses both:

This approach is intended to support vulnerable people while considering the needs of communities hosting displaced and refugee populations. The broader geographic focus includes Adamawa, East, and North regions for these crisis-affected populations. Monitoring and evidence generation are incorporated into the program through baseline and endline studies.

These studies can help assess:

Using baseline and endline information allows partners and stakeholders to assess changes over the implementation period and identify areas requiring further attention. Selected partners will be expected to contribute to the delivery of the integrated nutrition package in the targeted regions. Potential responsibilities include supporting: Partners will work within the broader program framework and coordinate with relevant national and international actors. The initiative includes technical support from national and international partners. Coordination is important because the program combines nutrition assistance, community-level activities, institutional capacity building, screening, referral, and monitoring. Partners therefore need to be able to work collaboratively with relevant stakeholders and contribute to an integrated implementation approach. Organizations considering participation should clearly demonstrate their ability to deliver integrated nutrition interventions in the targeted regions. A strong expression of interest should explain: Organizations should clearly connect their experience and operational capacity with the objectives of the nutrition initiative. Malnutrition prevention requires more than access to food alone. Combining specialized nutritious foods with improved feeding practices, community screening, referral, household care, hygiene, and capacity building can address multiple factors associated with nutritional vulnerability. The WFP initiative therefore uses