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.
Resilient Health Systems: Adaptive Management Tools to Maintain and Strengthen Nutrition Services
Publication Date:
Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsEmergency NutritionResilience
Collaborating organizations have developed tools and approaches to improve emergency preparedness and support health systems to respond to increased demands resulting from seasonal and unforeseen shocks and stresses. Speakers shared three tools designed to deliver nutrition services more effectively in such contexts. This is a webinar.
Small-Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements for the Prevention of Child Malnutrition and Promotion of Healthy Development: Overview of Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis and Programmatic Implications
Publication Date:
Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsAdolescent NutritionInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Micronutrient InterventionsNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
Co-packaging small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements with interventions that focus on preventing and controlling prenatal and child infections, improving health care access, and promoting early child development may have a greater impact than interventions alone.
Giving Voice to the Silent Burden: Maternal Mental Health Technical Consultation
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
Common perinatal mental disorders have significant and lasting implications for women’s health and quality of life, as well as newborn health and development. Experts from several related fields discuss necessary interventions to ensure that pregnant and postpartum women receive respectful and nurturing care. This is a webinar.
Nutrition Counseling and Care During and After Childhood Illness Literature Review: Evidence from African Countries
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Nutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
The review proposes recommendations to improve caregiver practices, strengthen the quality of feeding counseling during illness, address evidence gaps related to feeding care during illness, and identify enablers and barriers to those providing optimal feeding counseling and support after illness or during recovery.
Integrating Early Detection and Treatment of Child Wasting into Routine Primary Health Care Services: A Resource Guide to Support National Planning
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAdolescent NutritionGrowth Monitoring and PromotionWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
The guide presents a process to identify integration actions to address the early detection and treatment of child wasting within primary health care services. Programmers must consider feasibility, risks, and benefits to guide integration and in what form. For each health system component, the guide presents common constraints and presents a set of integration actions to address them.
Fed to Fail? The Crisis of Children’s Diets in Early Life
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAdolescent NutritionCOVID-19Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Policies and programs to improve young children’s diets are not prioritized and are being further eroded by the coronavirus pandemic. UNICEF calls on governments and partners to work collectively to transform food, health, and social protection systems. The report is available in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.
Predictors of Complementary Feeding Practices among Children Aged 6–23 Months in Five Countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Findings showed that maternal education and age, paternal education and wealth, culture and geographic location, and utilization of health services were associated with minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet.
Impact of Scaling up Prenatal Nutrition Interventions on Human Capital Outcomes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Modeling Analysis
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal NutritionMicronutrient Interventions
Scaling up prenatal nutrition interventions in low- and middle-income countries from current levels to 90 percent may lead to substantial gains in schooling and lifetime income. Decision-makers should consider potential long-term human capital returns on investments in maternal nutrition.
Effective Nutrition Governance is Correlated with Better Nutrition Outcomes in Nepal
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsAdolescent Nutrition
Data collected to determine the relationship between the Nutrition Governance Index (NGI) and anthropometry highlight the importance of effective management of policy-based programming and resource use to produce nutrition gains.
Dietary Diversity and Undernutrition in Children Aged 6–23 Months in Sub-Saharan Africa
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsAdolescent NutritionInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Given the role that dietary diversity plays in the health status of children, implementing nutrition-specific interventions and strengthening existing interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices is particularly important in countries where the prevalence of adequate minimum dietary diversity is low and undernutrition is high.
Beyond Stunting: Complementary Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluating USAID Nutrition Activities
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal Nutrition
Recent literature has critically examined the use of stunting as an indicator for evaluating the impact of nutrition interventions. The guidance document suggests approaches and indicators to measure the results of nutrition programs in a comprehensive and meaningful way.
Projecting the Impact of Nutrition Policy to Improve Child Stunting: A Case Study in Guatemala Using the Lives Saved Tool
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAdolescent Nutrition
Results point to the need for strategies that address social determinants impacting stunting rather than a more narrow focus on nutrition-specific interventions. Addressing structural drivers of stunting requires multi-sectoral nutrition and social policies.
Modeling Food Fortification Contributions to Micronutrient Requirements in Malawi Using Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningFood SecurityMicronutrient Interventions
Large-scale food fortification may be a cost-effective intervention to increase micronutrient supplies in the food system when implemented under appropriate conditions.
Health Facility-Based Counselling and Community Outreach are Associated with Maternal Dietary Practices in a Cross-Sectional Study from Tanzania
Publication Date:
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningMaternal Nutrition
Women who received nutrition advice were more likely to eat larger quantities of food during pregnancy compared with women who did not, while women who received antenatal care and advice on nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy were more likely to eat a wider variety of foods.
Food and Youth: What I Have Learned from Young People and Their Desire to Fix the Food Systems They Live In
Publication Date:
Knowledge ManagementAdolescent Nutrition
UNICEF’s executive director and youth representatives discuss young people’s struggles with their food choices and food environments, share how young people are contributing to the transformation of global and local food systems, and offer concrete next steps to ensure that children and young people are at the center of discussions about food systems transformation. This is a webinar.
Students from six countries made a #FoodHeroes music video to discuss how young people can take action to make agri-food systems more sustainable. Their goal is to encourage youth to be change-makers and advocates for a hunger-free and sustainable world.
Dr. Thilsted shares insights about nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquaculture and food systems. She discusses challenges for addressing nutritional needs of infants, young children, and pregnant and lactating women and shares how she engages with agriculture, food security, and food systems colleagues.
Reviewing the UN Food Systems Summit with Agnes Kalibata
Publication Date:
Knowledge ManagementFood Security
In her role as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy, Agnes Kalibata discusses outcomes of the UN Food Systems Summit, explains key issues affecting food systems, and discusses criticism of the Summit. She evaluates the United States’ $10 billion commitment to food security and describes what food security leadership should look like in the future. This is a podcast.
Nutrient Profiling: Designing a Healthier Future for Global Benefit
Publication Date:
Knowledge ManagementMicronutrient Interventions
Nutrient profiling models have the potential to address stunting and micronutrient deficiencies. Researchers and programmers should consider all forms of malnutrition, including inadequate intakes of vitamins and minerals, the lack of high quality protein intakes, and overweight and obesity.