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Women from a village in Sédhiou, Sénégal prepare mixed flour and vegetables for malnourished children.
Photo Credit: Franck Boyer, NCBA CLUSA

Understanding the dietary practices of infants, young children, and women can strengthen policies, programs, and interventions to improve nutrition. Updated guidance on 17 indicators for infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices and minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) have recently been released by UNICEF-WHO and FAO, respectively. These indicator guides are designed for data collection in large-scale surveys and national programming, but can also be used on a smaller scale or for research purposes.

Recommendations for the collection of these dietary data involve administering new questions or modifying existing ones. To put these new guidelines into practice, The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program conducted cognitive testing on the survey questions in an environment that closely mimics a real, complex survey implementation setting. The results provide critical information to strengthen the validity and quality of the data collected to formulate the IYCF and MDD-W indicators. 

The updated guidelines also call for better adaptation of the survey questions to address the context-specific nature of dietary patterns. USAID Advancing Nutrition has worked with a diverse group of partners to support the adaptation of a Diet Quality Questionnaire (DQQ) across 92 countries for women, infants, and young children. The questionnaire adaptations from this work can be used in the collection of IYCF and MDD-W data in surveys, like the DHS and others, which is critical for high-quality, consistent data collection.

During this event, presenters shared new global guidance on IYCF and MDD-W indicators. Speakers also shared their experience with the development and use of the updated guidelines, pilot results on the collection of these indicators, and country-specific adaptations of the dietary questions. 

Webinar Recording

Webinar Resources

Speakers

Chris Vogliano (moderator) , Technical Advisor of Food Systems, USAID Advancing Nutrition

Vrinda Mehra, Nutrition Statistics Specialist, UNICEF

Giles Hanley-Cook, Nutrition/Statistics Consultant, Food and Nutrition Division of the FAO

Sorrel Namaste, Senior Nutrition Technical Advisor, The DHS Program.

Anna Herforth, Senior Researcher, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Principal Investigator, Global Diet Quality Project