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.
Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding reduces emissions related to livestock care and milk production, farming, production of containers, transportation associated with distribution systems, and disposal of associated waste.
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.
Act Now Before Ukraine War Plunges Millions into Malnutrition
Publication Date:
Knowledge ManagementMonitoring, Evaluation, and LearningEmergency NutritionFood Security
The war in Ukraine could affect a generation of women and children who are already vulnerable to malnutrition, with implications for the human capital of communities and nations into the future. Authors call for the redoubling of efforts to ensure that the world’s women and children get the food and nutrition they need.
Discussions include the role of foreign policy in ending global malnutrition, effective financial investment in food systems reform, the relationship between food systems reform and climate change, and the importance of understanding the links between conflict and food security. This is a webinar.
Promoting Nutrition-Sensitive Innovation across the Food System: Introduction to the Work of the New Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab
Publication Date:
Food SystemsFood SafetyFood Security
Speakers discuss the Innovation Lab’s research and capacity strengthening agenda and how it plans to support the broader objectives of USAID and the Feed the Future initiative. This is a webinar.
Speakers discuss the role of advanced technology in promoting climate-smart agriculture, achieving goals under the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate and the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, and addressing food security in the United States and globally. This is a webinar.
Strengthening Policy and Research for Food System Transformation in Nepal
Publication Date:
Food SystemsFood Security
Engaging policy stakeholders beyond agricultural production systems; collaborating with credible local partners; and developing national, provincial, and local capacities for various subsectors of the food system are critical. National policymaking institutions and think tanks should drive identification of policy and research priorities.
How a Comprehensive Food Policy Improved Child and Adolescent Diets at School in Chile
Publication Date:
Food SystemsAdolescent Nutrition
While the school environment provides an opportunity to improve health and nutritional well-being, complementary regulations in other environments may reduce partial compensatory behavior and influence overall child and adolescent diets.
This report analyzes key characteristics and trends of dietary surveys over time, includes country stories on dietary survey initiation, implementation, and data use, and provides data visualizations to highlight the type of information dietary data can provide for policy makers.
Freshwater Aquaculture is More Important for Food Security than Previously Understood
Publication Date:
Food SystemsFood Security
Balanced approaches to science, policy, and investment that prioritize freshwater aquaculture development in addition to mariculture contribute more to global food security than those favoring mariculture alone.
Affordability measures should incorporate a portion of savings, include all income sources, and consider reallocating funds spent on less healthy foods to healthier foods. Introducing interventions to change perceptions about the values of foods, reducing the scarcity mindset, and enhancing access to financial institutions could improve nutritious food affordability.
Top sources of priority micronutrients include organs, small fish, dark green leafy vegetables, bivalves, crustaceans, goat, beef, eggs, milk, canned fish with bones, mutton, and lamb. Cheese, goat milk, and pork are also good sources, followed by yogurt, fresh fish, pulses, teff, and canned fish without bones.
Parents’ Perceptions of Children’s Exposure to Unhealthy Food Marketing: A Narrative Review of the Literature
Publication Date:
Food SystemsAdolescent Nutrition
Increasing awareness among parents and caregivers to the high levels and harmful effects of children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing may build support for policy change.
Drivers of Food Acquisition Practices in the Food Environment of Peri-Urban Hyderabad, India: A Qualitative Investigation
Publication Date:
Food SystemsAdolescent NutritionFood Security
Findings from a study investigating food acquisition practices in Hyderabad, India, revealed a need for targeted interventions in external and personal food environments to improve diets, nutrition, and health.
Do Engaging Fathers and Bundling Nutrition and Parenting Interventions Improve Young Child Diets and Development and Promote Gender Equality?
Publication Date:
Early Childhood DevelopmentGenderInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
Bundled interventions produced greater benefits for child development, child diets, nutrition and parenting practices, and household gender equality than nutrition-only interventions. Engaging couples benefited child diets, maternal and paternal care practices, household gender equality, and women’s empowerment more than interventions for mothers only.
WHO Recommendations on Maternal and Newborn Care for a Positive Postnatal Experience
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Early Childhood DevelopmentBreastfeedingInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal Nutrition
Recommendations focus on improving the quality of essential, routine postnatal care for women and newborns receiving facility- or community-based care in any resource setting. This report includes accompanying materials.
Responsive Care and Early Learning Addendum for IYCF Counseling
Publication Date:
Early Childhood DevelopmentInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Nutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
The Responsive Care and Early Learning Addendum package includes illustrated counseling cards; training materials; and a guide for planning, adaptation, and implementation. It is designed for use in both individual and group counseling sessions.
Measurement Tools and Indicators for Assessing Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development: A Scoping Review
Publication Date:
Early Childhood DevelopmentInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Nurturing care encompasses good health, adequate nutrition, opportunities for early learning, responsive caregiving, and safety and security, but there is insufficient focus on measuring the last three. Additional research is important to establish optimal measures and indicators for assessing nurturing care, especially for early learning and responsive caregiving.
Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools
Publication Date:
Early Childhood Development
Revised milestones and checklists can support developmental surveillance, clinical judgment for additional developmental screening, and research in developmental surveillance processes. Researchers identified gaps in developmental data, particularly for social-emotional and cognitive milestones.
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
Publication Date:
Early Childhood Development
Most children in low and middle-income countries are not receiving minimally adequate nurturing care during the next 1,000 days of their lives. 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, and safety and security.