USAID Advancing Nutrition Director of Nutrition and Health Systems Kristen Cashin, presented at a recent CORE Group event that took place on February 15, 2022. The webinar highlighted USAID-funded initiatives to strengthen maternal nutrition through health systems from global and local perspectives. Kristen presented USAID Advancing Nutrition’s Strengthening Maternal Nutrition in Health Programs: A Guide for Practitioners. This guide, which is also available in French, builds on the Maternal Nutrition Operational Guidance: Program Considerations for Low- and Middle-Income Countries, and provides step-by-step recommendations to add and strengthen maternal nutrition components in programs or services delivered by the health system, including actions to strengthen the overall health system and the enabling environment. 

As Kristen described during the event, this new tool is based on a test of previous guidance and incorporates feedback and  recommendations from global and country based experts. Program planners would use this beginning three to six months before designing a new program or activity, or applying it to an existing program or activity. 

During the event, presenters from Kenya, Guatemala and Uganda also shared their experiences strengthening the implementation of maternal nutrition programs at country level. Learn more about USAID Advancing Nutrition’s work strengthening health systems around the world.