Adapting an Evidence-Based, Early Childhood Parenting Programme for Integration into Government Primary Health Care Services in Rural Bangladesh
Mehrin, Syeda Fardina, Jena Derakshani Hamadani, Nur-E Salveen, et al. Frontiers in Public Health, January 2021
Research Articles
Reach-Up and Learn, an evidence-based home-visiting program focused on early childhood development, has been adapted for routine delivery in community clinics. Iterative piloting identified challenges in incorporating the program into existing workloads and promoting mothers' engagement. This led to simplifying the content and structure, using more hands-on learning strategies, providing incentives to community members, and conducting motivational meetings. Authors conclude that incorporating participant feedback is critical as pilots scale.
Adapting NTEAM’s Technical Assistance for Nutrition Project in Bangladesh to Support the National Response to the Nutrition Challenges Posed by COVID-19
Nutrition International, November 2020
Events
Nutrition International staff describe efforts to support the Government of Bangladesh in its COVID-19 response planning and implementation and discuss revising guidelines for food basket provision and forecasting the impacts of COVID-19 on malnutrition in detail. The director general of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council discusses nine prioritized mitigation measures. This is a webinar.
Adapting Social and Behavior Change Materials in the Time of COVID-19
Food for the Hungry, 2020
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Reports and Tools
According to the author of this brief, during a pandemic such as COVID-19, it is important to shift our thinking about research, material design, and behavior-change communications from a longer process to one that focuses on the most important issues and immediate next steps. This publication provides five tips for quickly and effectively adapting social and behavior change materials that are key in the fight against COVID-19. This guidance is intended to help social and behavior change practitioners understand how to frame the behaviors they want to promote immediately.
Addressing Barriers to Exclusive Breastfeeding in Nampula, Mozambique: Opportunities to Strengthen Counseling and Use of Job Aids
USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program, June 2019
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
In Nampula, Mozambique, exclusive breastfeeding practices are suboptimal. To reduce breastfeeding challenges in Nampula, the USAID Maternal and Child Health Survival Program conducted a study on the minimum breastfeeding competencies and practical skills needed by Nampula facility- and community-based providers.
Adequate Dietary Intake and Consumption of Indigenous Fermented Products Are Associated with Improved Nutrition Status among Children Aged 6–23 Months in Zambia
Hamaimbo, Bubala Thandie, Pamela A. Marinda, Vincent Nyau, et al. Dairy, February 2023
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Research Articles
Researchers found a significant association between height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores and fermented milk consumption in Zambia. Authors call for greater mapping and promotion of traditionally fermented foods and more research to better understand associated health benefits.
Adolescent Nutrition Mapping Study: A Global Stakeholder Survey of Policies, Research, Interventions and Data Gaps
Emergency Nutrition Network, December 2020
Reports and Tools
Gaps include an agreed-upon definition of adolescence, standardized anthropometric definitions of malnutrition, data on current and optimal diets, evidence on effective interventions for adolescents, adolescent engagement in research, inclusion of adolescents within health and nutrition policies, and designated research funding.
Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank
USAID Advancing Nutrition, February 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank is a collection of over 150 resources gathered, summarized and presented in a user-friendly online platform. The Resource Bank designed to help governments, donors, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders advocate for, design, implement, deliver, monitor, and evaluate effective adolescent nutrition programs and services.
Adolescent Nutrition: Current Progress and Looking Ahead
Emergency Nutrition Network, UNICEF, Save the Children, February 2021
Events
Presenters provide an overview of adolescent nutrition status across seven global regions, discuss how adolescents experience nutrition across the world, and present youth-led solutions to improve nutrition in Indonesia.
Advancements in Understanding Breastmilk: Learning from the BEGIN Project
USAID Advancing Nutrition, March 2022
- Knowledge Management
Events
The Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN) project analyzes human milk by exploring it as a complex biological system and examining its interactions with its internal (parental biology) and external (infant interactions) environments. This webinar presents findings of the BEGIN project and discusses its implications moving forward. This is a webinar with accompanying materials.
Advancing Food Systems Transformation: Dialogue between German Development Cooperation and CGIAR
International Food Policy Research Institute, February 2022
- Food Systems
Events
Speakers discuss the importance of international food systems research and the science–policy interface for advancing key actions for agriculture, food systems, and food security strategy and initiatives. They also identify joint priorities, opportunities, and entry points for collaboration. This is a webinar.
Advancing Nutrition: The Fight for Health of Children and Mothers in South Kyrgyzstan
USAID Kyrgyz Republic, August 2021
Reports and Tools
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.
Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment through Private Sector Engagement
Agrilinks, March 2022
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
While investing in women can clearly advance private sector interests, it’s not clear how or if this is being done in many of the markets where USAID works and what approaches are most effective. Seminars focus on aligning with the private sector and conducting market research to achieve inclusive development results.
Advocacy Toolkit – Nurturing Care
World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Bank, October 2020
- Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
The toolkit provides materials for those seeking to advocate for increased attention to and investment in early childhood development include country profiles, case studies, examples of advocacy best practices, key messages, quotes that capture the critical elements of nurturing care, a detailed explanation of nurturing care, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Affordability of Nutritious Foods for Complementary Feeding
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, UNICEF, March 2021
Reports and Tools
Inadequate quantity and quality of foods during the complementary feeding period impact growth and development and have immediate and long-term consequences. Affordability assessments indicate that liver, small fish, dark green leafy vegetables, milk, and eggs are the most affordable sources to address nutritional shortfalls. Collective action to reduce the prices of these foods and raise incomes is critical; social protection services, improved access to fortified foods, and increasing home production of nutritious foods are also important strategies.
Affordability of the EAT-Lancet Reference Diet: A Global Analysis
Hirvonen, Kalle, Yan Bai, Derek Headey, et al. The Lancet. November 7, 2019
- Food Systems
Research Articles
The EAT-Lancet Commission created a global benchmark diet capable of both sustaining health and protecting the environment, but did not examine the diet’s affordability. This analysis strives to understand the diet’s cost around the world by comparing food price and household income data from 159 countries. Findings show that for 1.58 billion people worldwide, the benchmark diet is too expensive for daily incomes to support.
Africa Regional Convening of the Global Initiative to Support Parents
Africa Early Childhood Network, June 2022
- Early Childhood Development
Events
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.
Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition
FAO, African Union, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, November 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Increasing numbers of Africans experience hunger and suffer widespread micronutrient deficiencies; overweight and obesity are significant public health concerns as well. A common vision, strong political leadership, and effective cross-sectoral collaboration, are essential to identify and implement sustainable solutions that transform agrifood systems to deliver healthy, affordable diets. This report is available in English and French.
Agricultural Extension and Rural Advisory Services: What Have We Learned? What’s Next?
CGIAR/International Food Policy Research Institute, November 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The “best-fit” framework focuses on extension service characteristics that affect performance, including governance structures and funding, organizational and management capacities and cultures, methods, and community engagement. All of these are affected by the policy environment, agroecological conditions, and farming-system heterogeneity. To improve extension performance, outcomes, and impacts, new and innovative interventions can be applied and adapted within this set of extension characteristics.
Agricultural Innovation for African Sustainability and Resilience
USAID and Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, October 2021
- Food Systems
Events
Participants met to identify priority actions for investments in agricultural research, development, extension, and the development of an enabling policy environment. This is a webinar.
Air Pollutant Emissions from Global Food Systems are Responsible for Environmental Impacts, Crop Losses, and Mortality
Crippa, M., E. Solazzo, D. Guizzardi, et al. Nature Food, November 2022
- Food Systems
Research Articles
Between 10 and 90 percent of country-level air pollutant emissions come from food production, processing, packaging, transport, retailing, consumption, and disposal. Food system emissions are responsible for approximately 22 percent of global mortality due to poor air quality and 1.4 percent of global crop production losses. This article is behind a paywall.
Aligning Best Practices and Addressing Misinformation for Optimal Infant Feeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic
PATH, January 2021
Reports and Tools
This brief discusses hospital best practices to encourage breastfeeding and ensure lactation success for COVID-19 infected mothers and their newborns. It also addresses whether COVID-19 can be passed from mother to infant at delivery, whether rooming-in and breastfeeding with an infected mother are safe, and whether it is safe to use donor milk during the pandemic.
All Children Surviving and Thriving: Re-envisioning UNICEF’s Conceptual Framework of Malnutrition
Black, Maureen M., Chessa K. Lutter, Angela C. B. Trude. The Lancet Global Health, Vol. 8, Issue 6, June 2020
- Early Childhood Development
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Research Articles
The authors of this commentary propose a revision to UNICEF’s malnutrition conceptual framework, adding responsive care, learning opportunities, and safety and security components to health and nutrition. They suggest that by combining these elements, the revised framework will better promote children’s growth, nutritional status, and neurodevelopment, helping children to thrive, not just survive.
Anemia Briefs
USAID Advancing Nutrition, October 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
Briefs explore current evidence and practice to understand and address the causes and consequences of anemia. Topics include assessing for anemia in clinical and public health settings, anemia in pregnancy, food-based approaches to address anemia, and coexisting infection and inflammation.
Anthropometric Deficits and the Associated Risk of Death by Age and Sex in Children Aged 6–59 Months: A Meta-Analysis
Thurstans, Susan, Stephanie V. Wrottesley, Bridget Fenn, et al., Maternal & Child Nutrition, September 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Research Articles
Researchers found no age- or gender-specific differences in the risk of mortality associated with child wasting, indicating the need to include all children under five in wasting treatment programs. Because younger children had a significantly higher risk of mortality from underweight and stunting than older children, prevention programs may be justified in targeting these children when resources are limited.