August 2022

IconCapacity Strengthening

Reports and Tools

Localisation

Save the Children, 2022
  • Capacity Strengthening
Shifting capacity, resources, and ownership to national and local actors will result in more timely, appropriate, and effective outcomes for children and their communities. This resource collection provides a centralized location for research and evidence.

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Reimagining Technical Assistance: Critical Shifts to Enable Strengthened Capacity & Better Health Outcomes

Child Health Task Force, June 2022
  • Capacity Strengthening
The brief outlines shifts required to adopt a new approach to technical assistance that strengthens country institutional capacity to lead health agendas and deliver better outcomes.

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IconEarly Childhood Development

Research Articles

Child Diet and Mother–Child Interactions Mediate Intervention Effects on Child Growth and Development

Bliznashka, Lilia, Dana C. McCoy, Saima Siyal, et al. Maternal and Child Nutrition, April 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Child diet and mother–child interactions improved children's cognitive, language, and motor development and had indirect effects on socio-emotional development. Leveraging these interactions may improve intervention effects on child outcomes.

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Estimates of a Multidimensional Index of Nurturing Care in the Next 1000 Days of Life for Children in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries: A Modelling Study

McCoy, Dana Charles, Jonathan Seiden, Jorge Cuartas, et al. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, May 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Most children are not receiving minimally adequate nurturing care. Further investments in indicator measurement and resources for preschool-age children are important, particularly for low-income populations and in the domains of responsive caregiving, early learning, safety, and security. This article is behind a paywall.

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Father Involvement and Early Child Development in a Low-Resource Setting

Garcia, Italo Lopez, Lia C. H. Fernald, Frances E. Aboud, et al. Social Sciences & Medicine, June 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Fathers' support of mothers and greater participation in shared household decision-making is positively associated with children's outcomes.

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Priority Setting in Early Childhood Development: An Analytical Framework for Economic Evaluation of Interventions

Verguet, Stéphane, Sarah Bolongaita, Anthony Morgan, et al. BMJ Global Health, June 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
As more programs promote early child development, this paper presents a unified analytical framework for assessing impact and highlights the range of costs and cost-effectiveness of currently available intervention strategies.

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Events

Africa Regional Convening of the Global Initiative to Support Parents

Africa Early Childhood Network, June 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Sessions focus on nurturing care for early childhood development, the importance of supporting caregivers of adolescents and children with disabilities, promoting caregiver and children’s mental health, and preventing child maltreatment. Speakers discuss scale-up, advocacy, financing, innovation issues, and working through different types of programs. Materials are available in English, French, and Portuguese.

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Optimising Child and Adolescent Health and Development

The Lancet, April 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Evidence supports a holistic agenda for child health spanning sexual, reproductive, maternal, childhood, and adolescent health; nutrition; and development. This series shows the importance of greater integration and implementation of evidence-based interventions across health, education, and social systems, as well as breaking down sectoral siloes.

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IconFood Systems

Research Articles

Farm-Level Production Diversity and Child and Adolescent Nutrition in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multicountry, Longitudinal Study

Khonje, Makaiko G., Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, Milu Muyanga, et al. The Lancet Planetary Health, May 2022
  • Food Systems
Further farm-level diversification is not a suitable general strategy to improve child and adolescent nutrition, but it may be useful in some contexts. Livestock production shows some promise for improving child and adolescent nutrition.

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Reports and Tools

Guideline: Fortification of Wheat Flour with Vitamins and Minerals as a Public Health Strategy

World Health Organization, June 2022
  • Food Systems
This guideline provides evidence-informed and locally adaptable recommendations on the fortification of wheat flour with vitamins and minerals to improve micronutrient status. Recommendations are helpful for the design, implementation, and scaling of nutrition actions and are particularly relevant to food-fortification programs.

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Participation Intensity in a Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Intervention

Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions, May 2022
  • Food Systems
In a study assessing program delivery, participation intensity was highest among older and highly educated participants from moderate wealth households and associated with better recall of topics discussed and greater knowledge of key methods. Associations were most significant for outcomes within individual decision-making ability.

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Political Economy of Agri-Nutrition: What’s Politics Got to Do with Nutrients?

Agriculture, Nutrition & Health Academy, June 2022
  • Food Systems
Research and policy agendas should focus on who and what is given space in nutrition debates, how power is exercised, knowledge of alternative and sustainable food systems, and incorporating equality issues in the design and evaluation of interventions. Instituting levies on the food industry to fund public and community initiatives to address malnutrition, encouraging diffuse power concentration and democratic food governance, and increasing the role of advocacy partners in research and evaluations are important to address the causes of malnutrition.

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Safe and Nutritious Food: Fortifying Systems to Deliver at Scale

AgriLinks, June 2022
  • Food Systems
Delivering nutritious and safe food requires government institutions with strong food regulatory and enforcement capacity to establish evidence-based standards and enable compliance, writes USAID Chief Nutritionist Shawn Baker. The private sector needs greater capacity, commitment, and access to financing.

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Status of Digital Agriculture in 47 Sub-Saharan African Countries

Food and Agriculture Organization, International Telecommunication Union, 2022
  • Food Systems
Agriculture digitalization is important to leverage the benefits of digital technologies to transform societies, improve livelihoods, and eradicate poverty. The report identifies countries’ current status by assessing infrastructure, digital penetration, policies and regulations, the business environment, human capital, and agro-innovation.

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Taking a Food Systems Approach to Policymaking: A Resource for Policymakers

Results for Development, May 2022
  • Food Systems
Resources explore potential entry points and ways to identify and engage relevant stakeholders and provide practical ideas to improve food systems’ ability to improve nutrition and health. Case studies demonstrate the impacts of policies and programs related to cash and food transfers, food safety, road transport infrastructure, agricultural extension, and land tenure on food system outcomes.

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Events

Learning Lab: Generating Demand for Healthy Diets: Practical Lessons from Private Sector Marketing

Agriculture, Nutrition & Health Academy, June 2022
  • Food Systems
Proven marketing techniques can increase the impact of social and behavior change activities to create demand for healthy diets and foods. This session helps participants identify and apply techniques to generate demand. This is a webinar.

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IconKnowledge Management

Reports and Tools

2022 Global Food Policy Report: Climate Change and Food Systems

International Food Policy Research Institute, May 2022
  • Knowledge Management
The report discusses innovations and policy responses to climate change that can support food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and sustainable food systems. These include transforming food systems, trade reforms, social protection, climate finance, and clean energy, among others.

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GAIN Podcast Series: Fostering a Culture of Food Safety

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, June 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Speakers discuss what it means to foster a culture of food safety and how to build one to reduce the burden of foodborne disease. This is a podcast.

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Mitigating Impacts of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on Global Food Security & Nutrition

Feed the Future, June 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is contributing to rising food, fuel, and fertilizer prices around the world, which are particularly impactful for communities already experiencing increased poverty, hunger, and malnutrition due to COVID-19, climate change, and protracted conflict.

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Scope and Impact of Digital Marketing Strategies for Promoting Breastmilk Substitutes

World Health Organization, April 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Findings raise significant concerns about the use of powerful digital marketing techniques to influence mothers’ feeding decisions. The report and webinar are available in Arabic, English, French, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

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Sustainable and Resilient Indigenous Peoples' Food Systems for Improved Nutrition: Digital Toolbox

International Fund for Agricultural Development, May 2022
  • Knowledge Management
The toolbox and participatory videos provide guidelines to design, implement, monitor, and supervise projects to improve Indigenous Peoples’ diets and nutrition, particularly by leveraging local food biodiversity. Materials are available in English, French, and Spanish.

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IconMonitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Research Articles

Health Outcomes Associated with Micronutrient-Fortified Complementary Foods in Infants and Young Children Aged 6–23 Months: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Csölle, Ildikó, Regina Felső, Éva Szabó, et al. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, June 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Fortified complementary foods are effective in preventing anemia in infants and young children 6–23 months of age in malaria-endemic regions. Researchers should investigate the effects of complementary food fortification globally, including in regions where malaria is not endemic.

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Reports and Tools

Diet Assessment Decision Tool

USAID Advancing Nutrition, June 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
The tool helps practitioners better understand dietary patterns and nutrient intake, which are critical to designing, monitoring, and evaluating efforts to improve diets. Diet assessments and related interventions should focus on children 6–23 months of age and pregnant women, as evidence shows these groups are vulnerable to malnutrition.

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Using Height-Adjusted Stunting Prevalence Will Fail Disadvantaged Children Worldwide

The Lancet Global Health, May 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
This correspondence is a response to S.V. Subramanian and colleagues’ comment in The Lancet on using stunting to monitor nutrition programs. Adjusting for maternal stature in stunting calculations underestimates the contribution of current deficient conditions to a child's stature and is unethical because it will disincentivize commitments to improve living conditions globally.

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Events

Data for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women: Understanding New Guidelines, Evidence, and Survey Tools Webinar

USAID Advancing Nutrition, June 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Presenters share new global guidance on indicators, their experience with developing and using updated guidelines, pilot results from using these indicators, and country-specific adaptations of questions. This is a webinar.

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Population-Based Survey Data Use for Improved Nutrition Policies and Programs Webinar

USAID Advancing Nutrition, May 2022
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Speakers present an e-learning course on nutrition indicators. They share country-specific experiences using population-based survey data for policy, program design, and implementation purposes. This is a webinar.

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IconNutrition and Health Systems

Research Articles

Countries' Experiences Scaling Up National Breastfeeding, Protection, Promotion and Support Programmes: Comparative Case Studies Analysis

Hernández-Cordero, Sonia, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Paul Zambrano, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, April 2022
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
Implementation science frameworks help identify key drivers for the scale- up of breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support policies and programs. Advocacy, multi-sectoral political will, financing, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination are key for enabling environments, as is improving maternity protection and tightening regulation and enforcement of the Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes.

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Process of Developing Models of Maternal Nutrition Interventions Integrated into Antenatal Care Services in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and India

Sanghvi, Tina, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Sebanti Ghosh, et al. Maternal and Child Nutrition, June 2022
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
Strategic use of data can contextualize nutrition guidelines, protocols, capacity strengthening, and supervision approaches and improve micronutrient supply chains and record-keeping and strengthen health services. Engaging family and community members to support pregnant women and improving women’s knowledge and self-confidence are important elements of country programs working to improve maternal and newborn health and nutrition.

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Reports and Tools

Improving the Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health: Implementation Guide for National, District, and Facility Levels

World Health Organization, May 2022
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
The guide provides practical guidance for policymakers, program managers, health practitioners, and other actors working to establish and implement quality of care programs for maternal, newborn, and child health.

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Innovative New App Launched to Train, Support, and Motivate Frontline Nutrition Workers in Gujarat State, India

Alive & Thrive, May 2022
The app provides frontline health workers with real-time support to problem-solve, get answers to questions, and participate in trainings. The platform collects feedback on service quality and provides anonymous feedback about supervision. The app collates and analyzes data, which helps government officials monitor program quality and identify performance gaps.

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Mothers' Milk Contributes Almost $4 Trillion to the Global Economy—But Its Value Has Never Been Considered. A New Tool Now Makes That Possible

Alive & Thrive, May 2022
  • Food Systems
  • Knowledge Management
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
The tool uses existing data to estimate the value of breastmilk. The accompanying webinar and brief advocate for developing paid maternity leave and workplace policies that support breastfeeding, ending exploitative marketing of commercial formula milk, and improving access to skilled counseling.

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IconNutrition in Humanitarian Contexts

Research Articles

Breastfeeding and Humanitarian Emergencies: The Experiences of Pregnant and Lactating Women during the Earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy

Giusti, Angela, Francesca Marchetti, Francesca Zambri, et al. International Breastfeeding Journal, June 2022
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Findings include the central role of partner and family support, the need for spaces where mothers can share experiences and practices with each other, the lack of breastfeeding support after hospital discharge, and the inappropriate donation and distribution of breastmilk substitutes.

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Evaluation of Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation and Medium-Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplementation in Pregnancy on Child Development in Rural Niger: A Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Sudfeld, Christopher. R., Lilia Bliznashka, Aichatou Salifou, et al. PLoS Medicine, May 2022
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Prenatal macronutrient and micronutrient supplementation provided no benefit for child development outcomes when compared with iron-folic acid supplementation. Prenatal lipid-based nutrient supplements had a positive effect on cognitive development trajectory and time to achieve selected gross motor milestones.

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Reports and Tools

Child Alert: Severe Wasting

UNICEF, May 2022
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Donors should fully fund the scale-up of early prevention and treatment, provide multi-year funding, and ensure that budgets include ready-to-use therapeutic food allocations. Governments should integrate early prevention and treatment programs into national primary health and nutrition care systems and services—and protect child nutrition investments from budget cuts. The report is available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Two webinars accompany the report.

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IconSocial and Behavior Change and Gender

Research Articles

The Effect of Electronic Job Aid Assisted One-To-One Counselling to Support Exclusive Breastfeeding Among 0–5-Month-Old Infants in Rural Bangladesh

Billah, Sk Masum, Tarana E. Ferdous, Abu Bakkar Siddique, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, May 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Breastfeeding counseling and practical demonstrations are promising interventions to improve exclusive breastfeeding and are scalable within existing community‐based programs.

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Fathers’ Complementary Feeding Support Strengthens the Association Between Mothers’ Decision-Making Autonomy and Optimal Complementary Feeding in Nigeria

Allotey, Diana, Valerie L. Flax, Abiodun Ipadeola, et al. Current Developments in Nutrition, June 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
High levels of fathers’ support in Nigeria strengthened the association between mothers’ decision-making autonomy and minimum meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, and feeding children fish.

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Interventions and Policy Approaches to Promote Equity in Breastfeeding

Vilar-Compte, M., R. Pérez-Escamilla, A. L. Ruano. International Journal for Equity in Health, May 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Designing programs based on community needs and wants can increase success in protecting, promoting, and supporting women’s right to breastfeed for as long as recommended or desired. Using implementation science frameworks and theories to address structural inequities will strengthen future studies and interventions.

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Strengthening Nutrition Interventions in Antenatal Care Services Improved Consumption of Iron-Folic Acid Supplements and Early Breastfeeding Practices in Burkina Faso

Kim, Sunny, Rasmané Ganaba, Purnima Menon, et al. Current Developments in Nutrition, June 2022
  • Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Strengthening maternal nutrition interventions delivered through government antenatal care services is effective for improving maternal nutrition practices. Continued efforts to strengthen services may be needed for greater behavior change and to address family support, social norms, and other factors that impact maternal diet.

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