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Global Challenges Mean That Advancing Nutrition is More Important than Ever

USAID Advancing Nutrition, February 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The global nutrition community saw the COVID-19 pandemic as a rallying call and galvanized support to prevent backsliding and improve nutrition around the world. In its third year of implementation, USAID Advancing Nutrition, worked at the global level and in 12 countries to strengthen nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive policies, programs, interventions, and systems to support and inform USAID’s strategic priorities.

Global Data Visualization Tools to Empower Decision-Making in Nutrition

Sight and Life, August 2019
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
As part of the Data for Decisions to Expand Nutrition initiative, Results for Development Institute conducted a landscape analysis of global data visualization tools and a literature review of data visualizations. They found that increases in available nutrition data can present challenges such as knowing which data are most critical for decision-making. Data visualization tools should lessen such challenges by serving as the interface between data and data users. After reviewing 22 tools, the authors identified inefficiencies in the data visualization tool landscape. This article suggests ways that improving such tools and their coordination might improve the uptake of data for nutrition decision-making.

Global Diet Quality Project

Global Diet Quality Project, December 2021
  • Food Systems
Reports and Tools
The Diet Quality Questionnaire captures dietary adequacy and dietary risk factors for noncommunicable diseases and enables monitoring of trends and comparisons across demographics. The Global Diet Quality Project enables the collection of comparable population-level dietary data within and across countries.

Global Diet Quality Score is Inversely Associated with Nutrient Inadequacy, Low Midupper Arm Circumference, and Anemia in Rural Adults in Ten Sub-Saharan African Countries

Bromage, Sabri, Yiwen Zhang, Michelle D Holmes, et al. The Journal of Nutrition, October 2021
  • Food Systems
Research Articles
Researchers evaluated the comparative performance of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) against other diet metrics to capture nutrient adequacy and undernutrition. The GDQS performed comparably with the Minimum Dietary Diversity–Women indicator in capturing adequacy outcomes. Given limited data on noncommunicable disease (NCD) outcomes and the cross-sectional study design, prospective studies should assess GDQS performance in capturing NCD outcomes.

Global Dietary Quality in 185 Countries from 1990 to 2018 Show Wide Differences by Nation, Age, Education, and Urbanicity

Miller, Victoria, Patrick Webb, Frederick Cudhea, et al. Nature Food, September 2022
  • Food Systems
Research Articles
The Alternative Healthy Eating Index produced regional means ranging from 30.3 (out of 100) in Latin America and the Caribbean to 45.7 in South Asia. Child scores were lower than adult scores in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and high-income countries. Scores were higher among women and more educated individuals. Diet quality increased modestly between 1990 and 2018 globally, except in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Global Evidence for Improving Resilience and Food Security: Findings from the REAPER Agriculture-Led Growth and Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Evidence Gap Maps

Agrilinks, July 2023
  • Food Systems
Events
Implementing partners from the Resilience and Food Security for Programmatic Approaches project present findings from machine learning, comprehensive evidence reviews on agriculture-led growth and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and new mapping of resilience and water intermediate outcomes to higher-level development objectives. This is a webinar.

Global Financing for Nutrition: 45% ≠ 1%

Shawn Baker, March 2021
Reports and Tools
More than 45 percent of infant and young child deaths are attributable to undernutrition. However, as this article points out, donor funding for nutrition services is less than 1 percent of donor investment in development as a whole. Despite proven solutions to screen and treat children, underfunding hinders large-scale progress with enormous consequences. A range of stakeholders—from governments, development banks, and civil society to philanthropies and the private sector—play a critical role in increasing funding for nutrition.

Global Health Nutrition Legacy: Save the Children 100 Years

Save the Children, May 2019
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
To capture the legacy of its work in global nutrition, Save the Children developed a pithy and colorful report that reviews the organization's efforts to improve the health and nutrition of women, children, and their communities. The document presents global program achievements and leadership, key contributions, and program learning and results. It also outlines priority areas for Save the Children’s next three-year nutrition strategy.

Global Initiative to Support Parents Call to Action

Early Childhood Development Action Network, June 2021
Reports and Tools
Coalition partners call for an agile, coordinated, and global effort on behalf of all parents and caregivers, including increased investment and scaling of evidence-based initiatives to support caregivers, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

Global IYCF e-Learning Course Reaching Health Workers Around the World

Alive & Thrive, February 2021
Reports and Tools
This free course, based on the World Health Organization’s Combined Course on Growth Assessment and Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling and supplemental content, has been adapted to deliver an immersive, interactive e-learning opportunity. While participants report that the course is of high quality and enrollments are increasing, few finish the course. Assessment of whether low completion rates are due to course length, difficulty, and/or limited internet access is ongoing. It is available in French and English.

Global Launch of the Nurturing Care Handbook and Practice Guide

Early Childhood Development Action Network, March 2023
  • Early Childhood Development
Events
The handbook and guide provide practical guidance, training materials, tools, and examples for implementing the Nurturing Care Framework in various settings and strengthen advocacy and capacity strengthening efforts. This is a webinar.

Global Launch: A Future for the World's Children

World Health Organization, UNICEF, Lancet Commission, February 2020
  • Early Childhood Development
  • Food Systems
  • Nutrition and Health Systems
Events
The WHO, UNICEF, and the Lancet Commission released a groundbreaking report highlighting the dramatic threats to children’s health, development, and wellbeing due to existential threats, including  climate change and predatory marketing of harmful products such as alcohol, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages, and breastmilk substitutes. The report launch highlights the key findings and recommendations on what can be done to coordinate global action to address these threats while engaging young people in the solutions to promote sustainable development.

Global and Local Partnerships Advance Nutrition

USAID Advancing Nutrition, January 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Collaborative multi-sectoral nutrition initiatives include establishing food security and nutrition planning guidelines; conducting training of trainers courses delivering nutrition-specific activities to adolescent girls, pregnant women, and women of reproductive age; and supporting governments to develop strategies and tools for nutrition services. USAID Advancing Nutrition will expand to support nutrition initiatives in four new countries this year.

Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act of 2021 Implementation Plan

USAID, August 2023
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act Implementation Plan presents priority technical areas in nutrition; the approach USAID will take to coordinate and collaborate internally and with priority countries, other federal agencies, and partners; and accountability mechanisms.

Global Nutrition Cluster | Roles and Responsibilities of Nutrition Cluster Partners within the Cluster Approach at Country Level

Global Nutrition Cluster, September 2020
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Reports and Tools
This graphic provides guidance on partners' roles in needs assessment and analysis, strategic response planning, resource mobilization, implementation and monitoring, operational peer review, and evaluation. It also provides detailed steps for coordination, information management, and preparedness. Available in English and Arabic.

Global Nutrition Cluster: 2020 Mid-Year Report (Jan-Jun)

Global Nutrition Cluster, The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Vision, August 2020
  • Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Reports and Tools
The Global Nutrition Cluster has developed a COVID-19 Coordination Resource Site, a COVID-19 Nutrition in Emergencies Resource Site, and technical briefs, podcasts, and webinars focusing on COVID-19 and nutrition. It has also created Programmatic Adaptation Teams to compile, curate, and present potential adaptations and related tools and resources, and create stronger collaborations with international, regional, and local partners.

Global and Regional Prevalence of Disabilities among Children and Adolescents: Analysis of Findings from Global Health Databases

Olusanya, Bolajoko O., Vijaya Kancherla, Amira Shaheen, et al. Frontiers in Public Health, September 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
Prevalence estimates using functional approach or statistical modeling are comparable and complementary but they require greater alignment of age groups and  severity thresholds, especially for children under five.

Global Report on Food Crises 2020

Global Network against Food Crises, April 2020
  • Knowledge Management
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
How might COVID-19 contribute to global food crises? This year's report aims to answer this question while providing an overview of the global scale of acute hunger. It analyzes factors that contribute to, perpetuate, or deteriorate food crises around the world.

Global Report on Food Crises 2022—Mid-Year Update

Food Security Information Network, September 2022
  • Food Systems
Reports and Tools
Despite humanitarian and development assistance, the number of people requiring urgent humanitarian assistance worldwide is rising due to economic shocks, COVID-19, conflict, and climate change.

Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities

World Health Organization, December 2022
  • Early Childhood Development
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The report documents evidence of health inequities and country experiences advancing health equity, and provides recommendations to health sector decision-makers for country-level action.

Global Report on the State of Dietary Data

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, March 2022
  • Food Systems
Reports and Tools
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.

Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) v1.0

World Health Organization, February 2023
  • Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
The Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) provides a standardized, holistic method for measuring the development of children under age three at the population and programmatic level. The open-access package includes materials to support implementation and a technical report that summarizes the GSED, its validation methodology, and psychometric properties.

Global Thrive Act Implementation Guidance

USAID, February 2023
  • Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
The Global Child Thrive Act recognizes that the future health, prosperity, and stability of individuals and societies require promoting and protecting young children’s development, which necessitates coordination and integrated approaches across various sectors, including health; nutrition; child protection; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and education.

Good Nutrition Better Lives, Focus on Africa—Episode 34

International Fund for Agriculture Development, July 2022
  • Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
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.