What is the need of Monitoring and Surveillance?

Monitoring, we know, is the act of observing something and sometimes keeping a .record of it while surveillance is a repeated survey using a standard methodology. During nutritional emergency, relief foods may be scarce and may need to be provided preferentially (targeted) to  the. People in  greatest need. Food relief programmes should be planned and implemented on the basis of initial, rapid nutrition assessment followed by systemic surveys and continued monitoring and surveillance of nutritional conditions. Suitable arrangements must be made for evaluating the nutritional status at levels of communities (to assess extent of severity of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, and composition of emergency ration; to ensure that fuel and cooking utensils are available and to monitor the changes in nutritional status over a period of time) and of individuals (to screen for supplementary or therapeutic feeding programmes).