September 2021

IconCapacity Strengthening

Reports and Tools

Distance and Blended Learning Guide: Parts 1&2

USAID MOMENTUM, August 2021
The guide provides tools for implementers to shift trainings to a virtual format and discusses how to assess training resources, participant needs, technology access and skills, and impacts and outcomes.

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Remote Coaching Orientation Module 3

The Coaching Approach, July 2021
This e-learning module discusses how to adapt to remote coaching situations, and the technology, skills, and platforms needed to effectively deliver remote coaching.

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Events

Governance in Global Health: Achieving Impact and Sustainability for Integrated Community Case Management

Child Health Task Force, June 2021
Coordination and development of integrated community case management (iCCM) requires country leadership and ownership to ensure integration into a national health system's policy and infrastructure.  Information generation and sharing, continued external funding, and  continued integration of disease-specific stovepipes to facilitate funding and programming are critical. This is a webinar.

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Improving Health Worker Performance: Lessons from a Global Review of Programs & Malawi's Experience and Learning

Child Health Task Force, June 2021
Speakers discuss emerging evidence and guidance on the effectiveness of interventions to improve health worker performance. A representative from the Malawian Ministry of Health shares lessons from a review of programs and the country's experience with improving the quality of health care services. This is a webinar.

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IconEarly Childhood Development

Research Articles

Gender Differences in Child Nutrition Status of Bangladesh: A Multinomial Modeling Approach

Haq, Iqramul, Md. Ismail Hossain, Mst. Moushumi Parvin, et al. Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences, June 2021
A mother’s education level, wealth, early child development, child disability, reading children's books, and diarrhea all had a statistically significant effect on moderate and severe malnutrition for both female and male children. Fever and rural residence were also significant in the female child model, while region and a mother’s functional difficulties were significant in the male child model.

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Reports and Tools

Early Childhood Development in Humanitarian Standards and Guidance Documents

University of Virginia Humanitarian Collaborative, July 2021
Many caregivers in crisis settings have fewer resources and less time to provide children with attention and stimulation. Support for physical, mental, and socio-emotional needs and close relationships with nurturing caregivers can mitigate effects of trauma and displacement. Programs should explicitly target young children and caregivers, improve alignment with the Nurturing Care Framework, and identify priorities for comprehensive guidance.

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Global Initiative to Support Parents Call to Action

Early Childhood Development Action Network, June 2021
Coalition partners call for an agile, coordinated, and global effort on behalf of all parents and caregivers, including increased investment and scaling of evidence-based initiatives to support caregivers, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

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Improving Early Childhood Development in Ecuador

Innovations for Poverty Action, 2021
A randomized evaluation found text messages may be effective for communicating information about early childhood development, nutrition, and healthy behaviors.

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Responsive Feeding Recommendations: Harmonizing Integration into Dietary Guidelines for Infants and Young Children

Current Developments in Nutrition, April 2021
Evidence-based responsive feeding (RF) recommendations should be incorporated into dietary guidance for infant and young child feeding and grounded in responsive parenting and feeding frameworks. Authors recommend replicating the National Academies’ scoping review and mixed-methods implementation science research to increase understanding of how to disseminate and implement RF-related recommendations across settings.

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Young Children and the Pandemic

UNICEF, July 2021
While COVID-19 halted service provision for young children in many countries, UNICEF continues to implement early childhood development interventions to ensure that young children, especially those living in disadvantaged households, have access to holistic interventions that respond to their essential needs throughout the first eight years of life.

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Events

Building Resilience Through Play: How Global ECD Programs Help Children Cope During COVID-19

Thrive Coalition, July 2021
Speakers from Sesame Workshop and Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of early childhood development programs, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a webinar.

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Panel Discussion: Early Childhood Education and Nutrition

Child Health Task Force, July 2021
Early childhood development (ECD) and nutrition experts present evidence of the link between ECD and nutrition; gaps remain in understanding how to successfully integrate additional components of nurturing care with nutrition in holistic programs. This is a webinar.

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Sustainable Solutions for Disability-Inclusive Nutrition Programs

CORE Group, May 2021
Children with disabilities and their families face stigma, food insecurity, and limited access to appropriate care and nutrition services. Speakers discuss barriers to inclusion in nutrition programs, consequences of exclusion, experiences adapting programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, and development of local capacity to adapt nutrition and feeding care for children with developmental disabilities. This is a webinar.

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IconFood Systems

Research Articles

The Importance of a Food Systems Approach to Low and Middle Income Countries and Emerging Economies: A Review of Theories and Its Relevance for Disease Control and Malnutrition

Alarcon, Pablo, Paula Dominguez-Salas, Eric M. Fèvre, et al. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, April 2021
Nutrition and food systems science is not advancing sufficiently to address nutritional public health problems. The sector requires greater understanding of the structure and drivers of food systems and guidance about the most effective interventions to increase access to nutrients and healthy levels of eating. Creating an atlas of food system maps for key commodities based on an agreed common methodology is critical.

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Reports and Tools

Small and Medium Enterprises and Nutrition—Making the Business Case

FAO, July 2021
This e-learning course focuses on the key role small and medium enterprises (SME) play in food systems, and both the SME and public health rationale for making nutrition-sensitive investments. It provides examples of nutrition-sensitive investments and their respective business cases, and discusses key elements of an enabling environment to facilitate investments.

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Events

Effective Pathways to Africa's Agricultural Transformation

Agrilinks, August 2021
Speakers discuss necessary investments to ensure the agricultural sector can deliver sufficient food and nutrition supplies and ensure good farmer incomes. They address the roles of individual stakeholders, partnerships, and leadership to build an inclusive agricultural transformation, and stress the importance of public sector commitment and private sector participation. This is a webinar.

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United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 Pre-Summit: On-Demand Sessions

United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 Pre-Summit, July 2021
This series of webinars focuses on multiple elements of food systems. The recordings  are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

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IconKnowledge Management

Reports and Tools

Advancing Nutrition: The Fight for Health of Children and Mothers in South Kyrgyzstan

USAID Kyrgyz Republic, August 2021
Four in ten children in remote areas of the Kyrgyz Republic are at risk for anemia and less than 20 percent of children ages 6–23 months consume a minimum acceptable diet. This video, which is available in English, Russian, and Kyrgyz, highlights USAID Advancing Nutrition’s work with families in very remote areas.

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The Foundation of All Development Activities? Part 1 of 2

Millennium Challenge Corporation, August 2021
This podcast episode, featuring USAID Chief Nutritionist Shawn Baker, explores the foundational nature of nutrition in international development and how development agencies across the U.S. government can leverage their strengths for maximum impact.

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Nutrition Voices: The Signal and the Noise—Episode 01

Nutrition International, August 2021
The host of this podcast episode discusses the role of food and beverage multinational corporations in global nutrition and encourages actors in the sector to identify areas of divergence that impact trust and success. 

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Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis (SGBA): A Toolkit for Nutrition Programs

Nutrition International, July 2021
This resource is grounded in the belief that gender equality and improved nutrition are mutually reinforcing, a woman’s status is interconnected with her nutritional status, and addressing underlying gendered barriers and constraints will improve nutritional outcomes. It provides guidance to help nutrition programs use analytical frameworks, develop partnerships supportive of gender equality objectives, create gender action plans, and recruit gender equality expertise.

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The View from Development Donor Countries, featuring USAID Chief Nutritionist Shawn Baker

Devex, July 2021
While evidence-based solutions exist and progress has been made to improve food systems and nutrition, the pandemic has reduced the delivery of nutrition services and has impacted every system that people rely on for good nutrition.  In this video interview, USAID Chief Nutritionist Shawn Baker calls for additional work to strengthen food, health, and social protection systems, and the humanitarian response.

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Events

2021 Global Food Policy Report: COVID-19’s Impact on Agriculture and Food Systems in South Asia

International Food Policy Research Institute, August 2021
The second wave of COVID-19 overwhelmed health systems and disrupted livelihoods, agriculture, and food systems. The public sector has an important role to play in moderating food price volatility by investing in storage, marketing, cold chains, and processing. Multi-stakeholder partnerships, digital technologies, greater use of biofortified crops and e-commerce, and promotion of micro-food enterprises to promote better health and nutrition in food systems are all critical. This is a summary of key outcomes from the virtual event.

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Building Better Breastfeeding Counselling Programmes: New Tools for Implementation

Global Breastfeeding Collective, August 2021
This webinar provides an overview of breastfeeding-related tools, including implementation guidance on counseling women to improve breastfeeding practices; a training course for infant and young child feeding counseling; operational guidance for breastfeeding counseling in emergencies; and an advocacy brief about the role of midwives and nurses in protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding. Recordings are available in Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

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The Rising COVID Malnutrition Crisis

Standing Together For Nutrition, August 2021
Modeling indicates that by 2022, there will be an additional 13.6 million severely malnourished children, 3.6 million more stunted children, and 283,000 additional deaths of children. Speakers, including USAID Chief Nutritionist Shawn Baker, discuss opportunities to integrate nutrition into global COVID-19 response and recovery plans. This is a webinar.

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IconMonitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Research Articles

Comparing Costs and Cost‐Efficiency of Platforms for Micronutrient Powder (MNP) Delivery to Children in Rural Uganda

Schott, Whitney, Belinda Richardson, Emily Baker, et al. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, June 2021
While community-based micronutrient powder delivery costs are higher than facility-based delivery, they are more cost-efficient per child reached and produce better outcomes.

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Considerations for Monitoring School Health and Nutrition Programs

Schult, Linda, Julie Ruel-Bergeron. Frontiers in Public Health, July 2021
Authors provide an overview of how to select monitoring indicators across a school health and nutrition (SHN) program's logical framework and discuss how SHN programs must adapt when schools are closed.

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Modeling Food Fortification Contributions to Micronutrient Requirements in Malawi Using Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, September 2021
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Large-scale food fortification has the potential to increase micronutrient supplies in the food system but more information is needed to understand whether current strategies are equitably benefiting populations with the greatest micronutrient needs. This study applied a mathematical modeling framework to compare fortification scenarios across different contexts, using oil, sugar, and wheat flour fortification in Malawi through secondary data analyses of a Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey. While the model predicted large-scale food fortification would contribute to reducing vitamin A inadequacies, other interventions are necessary to meet other micronutrient requirements, especially for the rural poor.

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Preanalytic and Analytic Factors Affecting the Measurement of Haemoglobin Concentration: Impact on Global Estimates of Anaemia Prevalence

Larson, Leila M., Sabine Braat, Mohammed Imrul Hasan, et al. BMJ Global Health, July 2021
Global estimates of anemia prevalence derived from capillary hemoglobin may lead to erroneous severity classification, but point-of-care or other instruments should not introduce variation if properly used.

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Review of Existing Models to Predict Reductions in Neural Tube Defects Due to Folic Acid Fortification and Model Results Using Data from Cameroon

Luo, Hanqi, Kenneth H Brown, Christine P Stewart, et al. Advances in Nutrition, July 2021
Collecting dietary and biomarker data as well as neural tube defect outcome data should accompany modeling to predict the effects of folic acid intake or status on neural tube defect risk. Researchers recommend using models based on erythrocyte folate concentration.

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Reports and Tools

Compendium of Nutrition Intervention Coverage Indicators & Questions for Household Surveys

Data for Decisions to Expand Nutrition Transformation, August 2021
The document provides indicator definitions and accompanying questions for nutrition interventions across the maternal, newborn, and child health continuum of care.

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International Dietary Data Expansion (INDDEX) Project Publications and Presentations

Tufts University, 2021
The INDDEX Project helps low- and middle-income countries increase acquisition and use of high quality, timely food consumption data to improve agriculture, food security, and nutrition outcomes. This virtual platform provides links to several webinars, journal articles, technical reports, and discussion papers related to the project’s dietary assessment tools.

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IconNutrition and Health Systems

Research Articles

Do Non-Maternal Adult Female Household Members Influence Child Nutrition? Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia

Usman, Muhammed Abdella, Lukas Kornher, Tekalign Gutu Sakketa. Maternal & Child Nutrition, July 2021
Having an additional non-maternal adult female household member is significantly associated with higher height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores and reduces the likelihood of severe stunting.

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Effect of Feeding Practices on Nutritional Status of Infant and Young Children Residing in Urban Slums of Berhampur: A Decision Tree Approach

Satapathy, Durga Madhab, Nivedita Karmee, Sanjaya Kumar Sahoo, et al. Indian Journal of Public Health, April 2021
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF), and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) predicted wasting. Stunting predictors included EBF, minimum meal frequency, and MDD, while underweight predictors included EBF, EIBF, and MDD. Practitioners can explain the probability of malnutrition in relation to various feeding practices to mothers and health workers using a decision tree approach.

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Maternal Depression is Associated with Less Dietary Diversity among Rural Nepali Children

Miller, Laurie C., Sumanta Neupane, Thalia M. Sparling, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, June 2021
There is a correlation between maternal depression and child dietary diversity, but growth and development of children of depressed mothers who are depressed did not differ from that of children of mothers who are not depressed.

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Reports and Tools

Maternal Micronutrient Supplementation: What Does It Take to Improve Adherence?

Nutrition International, June 2021
This e-learning course provides program planners and implementers with guidance and tools to improve the quality of maternal micronutrient supplementation programs delivered in antenatal care and postnatal care settings.

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The Triple Burden of Malnutrition Among Adolescents in Indonesia

Food and Nutrition Bulletin, July 2021
Information gaps about drivers and determinants of the triple burden of malnutrition, evidence-based interventions, and effective delivery platforms to reach the most vulnerable adolescents remain. Articles focus on the role of mother’s education, knowledge gaps in the etiology of anemia, the relationship between micronutrient-rich foods and anemia, factors influencing overweight and obesity, and the association of body image perception with dietary and physical activity behaviors.

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Events

Enhancing the Quality of Health Services—Introduction to a New Planning Guide for Implementers

WHO, June 2021
Speakers discuss how the WHO Quality Health Services planning guide can support staff at the district and facility levels to improve the quality of health services. This is a webinar.

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IconNutrition in Humanitarian Contexts

Reports and Tools

Improving Nutrition Through Food Assistance: Achievements of the Food Aid Quality Review

The Food Aid Quality Review, 2021
From 2000—2021, the Food Aid Quality Review provided support and recommendations to USAID to improve nutrition among vulnerable people for whom the distribution of food assistance can make a significant impact. This legacy website includes a wealth of resources and research to further work in emergency settings.

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Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Hub

Save the Children Resource Centre, August 2021
The IYCFEHub curates resources focused on infant and young child nutrition in emergencies and humanitarian contexts.

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Join #theHumanRace to Improve Nutrition and Address the Climate Crisis in Humanitarian Responses

USAID Advancing Nutrition, August 2021
USAID works to improve food and nutrition security and resilience of vulnerable populations in Madagascar by addressing nutrition for pregnant and lactating women through promotion of locally-produced supplemental foods. It is also supporting a feasibility study and developing a strategy to introduce and scale up use of these foods. 

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State of the Evidence 2021—Modifications Aiming to Optimize Acute Malnutrition Management in Children under Five

Action Against Hunger, 2021
This document provides a summary of existing evidence about six innovative community-based management of acute malnutrition protocol modifications. It focuses on effectiveness, operational considerations, costs and cost-effectiveness, successes and challenges, and areas for future research and learning.

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IconSocial and Behavior Change

Research Articles

Social and Behaviour Change Communication to Improve Child Feeding Practices in Ethiopia

Workicho, Abdulhalik, Sibhatu Biadgilign, Meghan Kershaw, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, June 2021
Using multiple communication strategies increases the positive effect of social and behavior change on child feeding practices.

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Reports and Tools

Food Security Portal

International Food Policy Research Institute, March 2021
Various e-learning courses address the importance of measuring women’s empowerment within project-specific contexts, impact evaluation, and economic modeling.

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New Tools for High-Quality Nutrition Social and Behavior Change Programming

USAID Advancing Nutrition, August 2021
These tools help harmonize design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of nutrition social and behavior change programs. They emphasize prioritizing behaviors that will impact outcomes, addressing critical factors that influence priority nutrition behaviors, and developing activities with a clear pathway between behaviors, factors, and interventions.

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