How does SMART work?
Emergency Nutrition Assessment is usually conducted to assess the severity of the situation by measuring the acute malnutrition and mortality in a given population at a defined point in time. This is normally done by estimating the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months and the crude mortality rate (CMR).
The SMART methodology is based on nutritional status of children under-5 and mortality (usually done in emergency nutrition assessment):
- Most vital, basic public health indicators of the severity of a humanitarian crisis.
- Useful to identify current need and prioritize resources.
- Useful to monitor the extent to which the relief system is meeting the needs of the population and thus,the overall impact and performance of the relief system.
Food security information is needed to understand and interpret nutritional survey data.
Why measure nutritional status under-5?
Acute malnutrition in children under 5 is closely linked with risk of death and is used to draw conclusions about the situation of the health status of the whole population not just young children. Children aged 6-59 months are more vulnerable than other age groups to external factors (such as food shortage or illness) and the nutrition status of these children is more sensitive to change than that of adults in many (although not all) populations.
Why measure mortality?
Mortality is the most critical indicator of a population’s improving and deteriorating health status and the type of information to which donors and relief agencies most readily respond to. Overall, if nutritional status of children under 5 is improving and mortality rates are decreasing or getting back to international standards, most of the humanitarian assistance support systems are probably working.
What are the benefits?
SMART is intended for NGO and host government users to simplify the collection and reporting of good quality data with a minimum added burden to their programs. Once trained on SMART, country staff could be self-sufficient and not need external assistance for conducting reliable assessments in order to respond to a crisis situation. In addition, the standardization of the methodology allows for comparisons within countries and between countries for monitoring purposes and planning.