September 2022

IconCapacity Strengthening

Research Articles

Expanding Integrated Competency-Focused Health Worker Curricula for Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition

Becker, Genevieve Ellen, Jennifer Cashin, Tuan T. Nguyen, et al. Education Sciences, July 2022
  • Capacity Strengthening
To ensure health workers have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to deliver nutrition services and accurate information, they need evidence-based competency standards; tools for learning, teaching, and assessment; and outcome monitoring.

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Events

Strengthening Policy Research and Analysis Capacity: The Role of Institutional Development Programs

International Food Policy Research Institute, July 2022
  • Capacity Strengthening
Collaborative food systems transformation research can play a valuable role in building long-term capacity to generate policymaking. Panelists and discussants explore lessons learned for strengthening policy research and analysis capacity. This is a webinar.

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IconEarly Childhood Development

Research Articles

Effectiveness of Family-Centered Program for Enhancing Competencies of Responsive Parenting among Caregivers for Early Childhood Development in Rural India

Gaidhane, Abhay, Shital Telrandhe, Penny Holding, et al. Acta Psychologica, September 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Researchers assessed caregivers’ knowledge and skills about child development and evaluated the effect of an intervention on the home environment, mother-child interactions, and development outcomes in India. Locally adapted curriculum improved competencies and confidence to promote early child development.

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Rethinking Responsive Feeding: Insights from Bangladesh

Black, Maureen M., Fahmida Tofail, Eric A. Hodges, et al. Nutrients, July 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Most measures of responsive feeding do not include bidirectional mother-infant responsivity or early learning principles and have not been validated against observations. Findings in Bangladesh support responsive feeding as modulating between proximal and distal responsivity, promoting autonomy and self-regulation, and helping children develop and practice healthy eating habits.

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Reports and Tools

How to Engage Men in Nurturing Care across the Life Stages

MOMENTUM, June 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
This infographic shows how to support men in providing nurturing care from pregnancy to early childhood. It provides a curriculum, guidance, and checklists to train health care providers to increase father engagement.

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The Pediatrician’s Role in Supporting Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development

American Academy of Pediatrics, August 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Opportunities to promote early childhood development include ensuring access to good-quality health and nutrition services, making services more supportive of nurturing care, and increasing outreach to families and children with the greatest risk of poor development. Additional opportunities include establishing specialized services for families and children with developmental differences and collaborating with other sectors to ensure a continuum of care.

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Situational Analysis of Early Childhood Care and Development Services in Ghana

USAID Advancing Nutrition, July 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Recommendations include strengthening responsive care, early learning, safety and security, and counseling and support services. Additional recommendations include strengthening workforce early childhood care and development competencies through pre- and in-service trainings and services; providing support to children with disabilities and their families; and providing tools and processes to aid in identification, support, and referrals of caregivers’ mental health issues.

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IconFood Systems

Research Articles

The Impact of Climate Change on Food Systems, Diet Quality, Nutrition, and Health Outcomes: A Narrative Review

Owino, Victor, Chiza Kumwenda, Beatrice Ekesa, et al. Frontiers in Climate, August 2022
  • Food Systems
Sustainable, resilient food systems and climate-smart agriculture are needed to ensure diverse, nutritious diets. Researchers and practitioners need robust tools and indicators to measure how food systems-climate change interactions, especially in the context of COVID-19, impact human health.

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Reports and Tools

From Food Price Crisis to an Equitable Food System

Hawkes, Corinna, Ramya Ambikapathi, Kim Anastasiou, et al. The Lancet, July 2022
  • Food Systems
Well-designed emergency cash and food distribution programs, social safety nets, school food programs, integrated nutrition interventions, and universal health care can improve outcomes for those facing food insecurity and malnutrition. These programs can also improve gender equality and climate change resilience. Addressing entrenched power inequalities, short-term political imperatives, fragmented government, and an economic system that incentivizes cheap food while building collective agency of those most affected is critical. Create a free account and log in to read this article.

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Measuring Dietary Diversity: Evaluating a Novel Cell Phone Method to Extend the Reference Period without Increasing the Cognitive Burden on Respondents in Ethiopia

Assefa, Thomas W., Ellen McCullough, Tamara McGavock, AgEcon Search, May 2022
  • Food Systems
Collecting dietary diversity data through high-frequency phone call surveys rather than through a one-time, in-person survey produced a lower household dietary diversity score but a higher women’s dietary diversity score, suggesting that the recall period impacts overreporting and underreporting food consumption.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022

Food and Agriculture Organization, July 2022
  • Food Systems
Governments need to assess how they can reallocate existing public budgets to be more cost-effective and efficient to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and equitably increase the availability and affordability of healthy diets. The report is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

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Events

Are Healthy Diets Affordable? Using New Data on Retail Prices and Diet Costs to Guide Agricultural and Food Policy

International Food Policy Research Institute, Tufts University, the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, July 2022
  • Food Systems
With a focus on diet costs and affordability, speakers discuss data sources and methods for policy-relevant analyses, implications of global variations, and food policy research and monitoring priorities. They advocate for policy analyses to inform agrifood systems transformation. This is a webinar.

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IconKnowledge Management

Reports and Tools

Bite the Talk Ep 14—Nothing about Us without Us

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, August 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Representatives from youth-driven organizations advocate for young people to be aware, equipped, empowered, and engaged to address food and nutrition issues. Speakers seek greater understanding of how government, business, other development actors, and young people can work together to ensure food system sustainability. This is a podcast with a transcript.

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Good Nutrition Better Lives, Focus on Africa—Episode 34

International Fund for Agriculture Development, July 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Speakers discuss developing youth agribusiness hubs, adapting to climate change through better rangeland management and improved livestock feed, promoting nutrition in agribusiness, and how healthy diets can contribute to healthy economies through agriculture, among other topics. This is a podcast.

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Mom Knows Best: Equipping Mothers in the Kyrgyz Republic with Nutrition Know-How

USAID, July 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Counseling for parents focuses on optimal nutrition for families through breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding practices. Training sessions cover proper breastfeeding posture, frequency of breastfeeding, and good maternal diet to support infant health.

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Programming to Improve Adolescent Nutrition Is Essential—and These Resources Can Help

USAID Advancing Nutrition, August 2022
  • Knowledge Management
The Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank provides hundreds of policies, program examples, guidance, and tools to help stakeholders design, improve, and expand programs and services. Research to determine how to design effective programs and materials should disaggregate by residence, education, wealth, agency, access to food, culture, and physiological status.

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USAID Nutrition Report to Congress FY22

USAID, August 2022
  • Knowledge Management
The report discusses country-specific stunting, wasting, anemia, and breastfeeding gains in the face of COVID-19 shocks and the climate crisis.

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Events

USAID Administrator Power on the State of Global Food Security and Nutrition

Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2022
  • Knowledge Management
The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict have increased the number of acutely food insecure people to historic highs; the war in Ukraine will add to this number, which is projected to reach 323 million people in 2022. USAID, technical experts, and philanthropists pursuing public-private investment discuss steps to combat the worsening crisis. This is a webinar.

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IconMonitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Research Articles

Estimating National and Subnational Nutrient Intake Distributions of Global Diets

Passarelli, Simone, Christopher M. Free, Lindsay H. Allen, et al. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Researchers found nutrient intake distributions were rarely symmetric, while variability and skewness differed significantly based on nutrient and population subgroup. The shape of nutrient intake distributions strongly influenced estimates of nutrient intake inadequacy.

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Exclusive Breastfeeding: Measurement to Match the Global Recommendation

Alayón, Silvia, Veronica Varela, Altrena Mukuria-Ashe, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, August 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Twenty-four-hour recalls of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) often overestimate the percentage of infants exclusively breastfed. Researchers compared five other methods to measure EBF. Calculating the midpoint prevalence among infants 4–5.9 and 6–7.9 months and a since-birth recall among infants aged 6–11.9 months were feasible to collect in household surveys and better align with the EBF for six months as recommended.

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Fortified Balanced Energy-Protein Supplementation, Maternal Anemia, and Gestational Weight Gain: A Randomized Controlled Efficacy Trial Among Pregnant Women in Rural Burkina Faso

Hanley-Cook Giles, Laeticia C. Toe, Kokeb Tesfamariam, et al. The Journal of Nutrition, July 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
In Burkina Faso, fortified balanced energy-protein supplementation (BEP) did not reduce maternal anemia or increase gestational weight gain when compared with iron–folic acid. Small positive effects of maternal BEP supplementation on birth outcomes support the need for additional investigation of different biochemical and postnatal outcomes.

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Reports and Tools

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022

United Nations, July 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Intersecting crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict, jeopardized the  Sustainable Development Goals. Intersecting solutions, including strengthening social protection systems and public services and investing in clean energy, will address root causes of environmental degradation, climate change, and increasing inequality. Investment in data and information infrastructure to produce timely, high-quality, and disaggregated data is critical. The report is available in Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

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IconNutrition and Health Systems

Research Articles

Can Digitally Enabling Community Health and Nutrition Workers Improve Services Delivery to Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a National-Scale Nutrition Programme in India

Patil, Sumeet R., Sneha Nimmagadda, Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, et al. BMJ Global Health, July 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Integrating a mobile app with existing services improved timeliness of home visits and appropriate counseling, especially when existing service levels were low, but did not impact infant and young child feeding practices. Digital enhancements can complement but should not replace other efforts to strengthen health systems and address structural barriers.

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Storytelling for Persuasion: Insights from Community Health Workers on How They Engage Family Members to Improve Adoption of Recommended Maternal Nutrition and Breastfeeding Behaviours in Rural Bangladesh

Grandner, Gargi Wable, Kathleen M. Rasmussen, Katherine L. Dickin, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, July 2022
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
Mothers, fathers, and mothers-in-law in Bangladesh each responded to different types of messaging from community health workers counseling families on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition. Key motivators were improved fetal growth and child intelligence, while improved maternal health was the least motivating outcome, even among mothers. Persuasion on maternal rest required the most intensive effort, which resulted in scientifically inaccurate messaging. Training and monitoring to address flawed counseling narratives are critical.

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Systematic Evidence and Gap Map of Research Linking Food Security and Nutrition to Mental Health

Sparling, Thalia M., Megan Deeney, Bryan Cheng, et al. Nature, August 2022
  • Food Systems
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
The relationship between depression and diets and anthropometry was most common in the literature, while the connection between infant and young child feeding and anxiety, stress, and mental well-being were least studied. It is important to generate more research exploring the relationship between stress and food insecurity, lack of access to healthy and diverse diets, and poor clinical nutrition.

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Events

Take Ten Steps up for Breastfeeding

Global Breastfeeding Collective, August 2022
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
Speakers discuss key updates to implementation guidance and responsibilities for a national Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative program and introduce new implementation resources. Several speakers share their experiences using the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. This is a webinar. It is available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

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IconNutrition in Humanitarian Contexts

Research Articles

How Can Nutrition Research Better Reflect the Relationship Between Wasting and Stunting in Children? Learnings from the Wasting and Stunting Project

Sadler, Kate, Philip T. James, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, et al. The Journal of Nutrition, June 2022
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Authors discussed how to design and finance research with a wasting and stunting lens to better understand, prevent, and treat child undernutrition. Lessons learned focused on the interactions and relationships between children's weight loss and linear growth faltering, factors driving different types of undernutrition, and the importance of identifying and targeting those most at risk.

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A Mixed Methods Study to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings

Rodo, Mariana, Lucy Singh, Neal Russell et al. Conflict and Health, June 2022
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
The pandemic has reversed decades of progress in maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition (MNCHN), especially in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Reduced or suspended funding and insufficient adaptation strategies have likely increased morbidity and mortality. Funding to re-establish MNCHN activities, improve planning to sustain routine health services, and enable surge planning is vital.

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IconSocial and Behavior Change and Gender

Research Articles

Identifying Effective Message-Framing Techniques in Behavior Change Communication for Healthy Diets: An Experimental Study of Promoting Biofortified Maize Adoption in Ethiopia

Jada, Kaleb Shiferaw, Marrit van den Berg. Appetite, August 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Nutrition education increased demand for nutritionally enhanced crops, while gain-framed messaging (e.g., achieving something) resulted in higher willingness to pay for nutritionally enhanced maize than loss-framed messaging. Motivational orientations and individuals’ risk perceptions impacted the effect of framed messages.

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Measuring Women's Empowerment: Gender and Time-Use Agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria

Eissler, Sarah, Jessica Heckert, Emily Myers, et al. Development and Change, July 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Women’s ability to exercise time-use agency was conditional on gendered power dynamics and other barriers within households, which together are related to gender norms. Future research should examine how to measure time-use agency in surveys and should explore patterns of time-use agency among diverse groups and contexts.

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