USAID Advancing Nutrition develops, curates, packages, and shares multi-sectoral nutrition knowledge to help you stay on top of developments and evidence in global nutrition programming.
Identifying Effective Message-Framing Techniques in Behavior Change Communication for Healthy Diets: An Experimental Study of Promoting Biofortified Maize Adoption in Ethiopia
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderMicronutrient InterventionsNutrition Sensitive Agriculture
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.
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.
Systematic Evidence and Gap Map of Research Linking Food Security and Nutrition to Mental Health
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Food SystemsNutrition and Health SystemsAdolescent NutritionBreastfeedingComplementary FeedingFood SecurityGrowth Monitoring and PromotionHIVInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionMicronutrient Interventions
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.
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
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Nutrition and Health SystemsAdolescent NutritionBreastfeedingMaternal NutritionNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
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.
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
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
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.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningCOVID-19Emergency NutritionGenderGrowth Monitoring and Promotion
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.
Fortified Balanced Energy-Protein Supplementation, Maternal Anemia, and Gestational Weight Gain: A Randomized Controlled Efficacy Trial Among Pregnant Women in Rural Burkina Faso
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAnemiaMaternal NutritionMicronutrient Interventions
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.
Exclusive Breastfeeding: Measurement to Match the Global Recommendation
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningBreastfeeding
Twenty-four-hour recalls of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) often overestimate the percentage of infants exclusively breastfed. Researchers compared five other methods to measure EBF.
Estimating National and Subnational Nutrient Intake Distributions of Global Diets
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAnemiaGenderMicronutrient InterventionsNutrition Sensitive Agriculture
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.
USAID Administrator Power on the State of Global Food Security and Nutrition
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Knowledge ManagementWastingAdolescent NutritionCOVID-19Emergency NutritionFood SecurityInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Micronutrient InterventionsNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
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.
Knowledge ManagementWastingAnemiaBreastfeedingCOVID-19Food SecurityInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionMicronutrient Interventions
The report discusses country-specific stunting, wasting, anemia, and breastfeeding gains in the face of COVID-19 shocks and the climate crisis.
Programming to Improve Adolescent Nutrition Is Essential—and These Resources Can Help
Publication Date:
Knowledge ManagementAdolescent NutritionWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
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.
Mom Knows Best: Equipping Mothers in the Kyrgyz Republic with Nutrition Know-How
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Knowledge ManagementAdolescent NutritionBreastfeedingComplementary FeedingCOVID-19Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
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.
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.
Knowledge ManagementGenderGrowth Monitoring and PromotionPrivate-Sector Engagement
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.
Are Healthy Diets Affordable? Using New Data on Retail Prices and Diet Costs to Guide Agricultural and Food Policy
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Food SystemsFood Security
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.
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.
Measuring Dietary Diversity: Evaluating a Novel Cell Phone Method to Extend the Reference Period without Increasing the Cognitive Burden on Respondents in Ethiopia
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Food SystemsAdolescent NutritionInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal Nutrition
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.
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.