Introduction

Ethiopia is a resource rich country with the topography of largely high plateaus and mountainous, and it is situated in the Horn of Africa with a population size of more than 90 million (http://www.indexmundi.com/ethiopia/demographics_profile.html). As we are dependent on subsistence farming economy for our food supply, a failure of either "Belg" or "Meher" rain could result in a total compromised production of food crops and food security. Because of the erratic rainfall and primitive farming, we were facing food shortages of different magnitude for the past decades. Women and children are the most vulnerable segment of the population for nutritional deficiency problems.

According to the 2011 EDHS survey report, 44% of children under five are stunted / too short for their age/, and this indicates chronic malnutrition. Stunting is most common among children age 24-35 months (57%) and is least common among children of more educated mothers and those from wealthier families. Wasting (too thin for weight), which is a sign of acute malnutrition, is far less common, only 10% while 29 % of Ethiopian children are underweight, or too thin for their age. For this significant percentage of malnutrition problem, food shortage is not the only determinant factor, but there are other contributing factors, like the culture of feeding / food taboos/ and illiteracy which could be tackled by our Health extension workers.

This nutrition module containing seven study sessions briefly describes the unit of competencies for level 3 HES works. All the competencies are within the domain of the National Nutrition Strategy /NNS/ and National Nutrition Program /NNP/ of Ethiopia which significantly contributes to the achievement of the MDG 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.

Most of the content of this module is extracted from level IV Health Extension practitioners training program module and tailored for the level three training program.