South Sudan - Standardized Expanded Nutrition Survey (SENS), Gorom Refugee Camp - 2019

The UNHCR Standardized Expanded Nutrition Surveys (SENS) provide regular nutrition data that plays a key role in delivering effective and timely interventions to ensure good nutritional outcomes among populations affected by forced displacement.

Gorom Refugee camp is located 24 km from Juba city. It has an estimated refugee population of 23471 who are mainly of Ethiopian nationality. The Anyuak refugees from Ethiopia have been in Gorom settlement since 2011. UNHCR and ACROSS carried out the nutrition survey in Gorom refugee camp from 16 to 20 September 2019. The overall aim of this survey was to assess the general nutrition and health status of refugee population and formulate workable recommendations for appropriate nutritional and public health interventions.

UNHCR population figures from ProGres were used to determine the total population and that of children 6-59 months for survey planning purposes. At the end of August 2019, the Gorom refugee population was 2347 individuals. 395 (16.8%) of these were children under five years. An exhaustive survey was conducted in relation to children as the total population size of Gorom camp was below 2,500 people rendering sampling unnecessary following UNHCR SENS guideline. All children aged 6-59 months in the camp were surveyed.

A total of six survey teams composed of four members each (one team leader, one haemoglobin measurer, one anthropometric measurer/translator and one anthropometric/haemoglobin measurement assistant were included in each survey. A standardized training lasting five days, which included a standardization test was provided. Data collection lasted five days. The survey teams were supported by a team of 2 supervisors and 1 coordinator who roved between the teams duration the data collection.

Mobile phone questionnaires using Open Data Kit (ODK) android software was used for data collection for all the modules. Data validation was carried out daily by the survey coordinator, which allowed for daily feedback to the survey teams. Data analysis was carried out using ENA for SMART July 9th, 2015 version for anthropometric indices and Epi info version 7 for all the other data.