The Implications of Three Major New Trials for the Effect of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene on Childhood Diarrhea and Stunting: A Consensus Statement
Cumming, O., B.F. Arnold, R. Ban, et al. BMC Med 17, 173, 2019
- Early Childhood Development
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
- Food Systems
- Knowledge Management
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
- Nutrition and Health Systems
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Research Articles
With the results from the SHINE and WASH Benefits trials demonstrating limited impact of basic water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) on childhood stunting, what role does WASH now play in multi-sectoral nutrition programming? Following the studies, the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation convened experts to reach a consensus on five key messages in response to the new evidence. This consensus statement details those five messages.
The Importance of a Food Systems Approach to Low and Middle Income Countries and Emerging Economies: A Review of Theories and Its Relevance for Disease Control and Malnutrition
Alarcon, Pablo, Paula Dominguez-Salas, Eric M. Fèvre, et al. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, April 2021
Research Articles
Nutrition and food systems science is not advancing sufficiently to address nutritional public health problems. The sector requires greater understanding of the structure and drivers of food systems and guidance about the most effective interventions to increase access to nutrients and healthy levels of eating. Creating an atlas of food system maps for key commodities based on an agreed common methodology is critical.
Improvement of Community Health Worker Counseling Skills through Early Childhood Development (ECD) Videos, Supervision, and Mentorship: A Mixed Methods Pre-Post Evaluation from Tanzania
Ferla, Josephine Pascal, Michelle M. Gill, Teopista Komba, et al. PLOS Global Public Health, June 2023
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
In Tanzania, the use of training videos and greater supervision and mentorship were associated with improvements in community health worker performance in providing nurturing care counseling and engaging fathers, especially in home settings.
Improving Anemia Assessment in Clinical and Public Health Settings
Williams, Anne M., Kenneth H. Brown, Lindsay H. Allen, et al. The Journal of Nutrition, September 2023
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
The authors’ propose a framework for anemia assessment that recognizes the overlapping causes of anemia; informs data collection and analysis through population-based surveys; and includes information on diagnostic tests, biomarkers and proposed cutoffs, and the feasibility of collecting different types of data.
Improving Early Childhood Development in Ecuador
Innovations for Poverty Action, 2021
Reports and Tools
A randomized evaluation found text messages may be effective for communicating information about early childhood development, nutrition, and healthy behaviors.
Improving Early Childhood Development: WHO Guideline
World Health Organization, March 2020
- Early Childhood Development
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
Systematic reviews of available evidence inform this guideline, which provides recommendations for improving child development within the health sector. Key recommendations include promoting responsive care for early learning, integrating responsive care and nutrition interventions, and supporting maternal mental health. A central theme throughout: supporting parents as they provide essential care for their children to promote optimal development.
Improving Feeding of Young Children during and after Illness: A Behavioral Design Approach
USAID Advancing Nutrition, April 2022
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Events
Several behavioral factors discourage and make caregivers feel powerless against constraints to feeding their children well. Research informed a collaborative design process for solutions to help families set achievable goals for feeding during and after illness, expand their choice set to additional affordable and nutritious local foods, and build skills and confidence to overcome limited appetite. This is a webinar and is available in English and French.
Improving Food Systems in Secondary Cities, What Can Be Accomplished Through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration?
Wageningen University & Research, December 2022
- Capacity Strengthening
Reports and Tools
Multi-stakeholder platforms that include researchers, policymakers, farmers, and small-scale processors provide significant support for the functionality and increased sustainability of food systems. The report discusses next steps to improve governance and explores novel mixed-farming methods to encourage more diverse diets.
Improving Health Worker Performance: Lessons from a Global Review of Programs & Malawi's Experience and Learning
Child Health Task Force, June 2021
Events
Speakers discuss emerging evidence and guidance on the effectiveness of interventions to improve health worker performance. A representative from the Malawian Ministry of Health shares lessons from a review of programs and the country's experience with improving the quality of health care services. This is a webinar.
Improving Maternal and Newborn Health and Survival and Reducing Stillbirth— Progress Report 2023
World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNFPA, May 2023
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
The report highlights global progress on maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and stillbirths and presents country efforts to meet global targets. Priority actions include encouraging greater investment, political commitment, and community engagement; strengthening service delivery for quality and respectful care; and building stronger data and information systems.
Improving Nutrition among Children with Feeding Difficulties and Disabilities: Call to Action for Policymakers
USAID Advancing Nutrition, November 2022
- Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
Improving competencies among health professionals, ensuring inclusion in social protection and food supplementation program eligibility criteria, revising guidelines and care protocols, and ensuring that disability-inclusive nutrition programs are included in government- and donor-funded guidance documents are critical to improving nutrition among children with feeding difficulties and disabilities. Additional recommendations include disaggregating data by disability in routine information systems, including functioning assessments in national surveys, and monitoring children’s development through their access to health services.
Improving Nutrition During Middle Childhood and Adolescence by 2032: A Research Roadmap
Emergency Nutrition Network, January 2023
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
This report reviews literature for six priority research areas; describes current knowledge, evidence gaps, and lessons learned from research across health-related fields; and provides a global research agenda to support nutrition for children and adolescents.
Improving Nutrition in the First 1000 Days in the United States: A Federal Perspective
Hamner, Heather C., Jennifer M. Nelson, Andrea J. Sharma, et al. American Journal of Public Health, October 2022
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Research Articles
Authors provide a high-level summary of the state of nutrition in the first 1,000 days in the United States, discuss opportunities to strengthen federal research and surveillance, advocate for effective communication and dissemination efforts, and identify priorities for further action.
Improving Nutrition Through Food Assistance: Achievements of the Food Aid Quality Review
The Food Aid Quality Review, 2021
Reports and Tools
From 2000—2021, the Food Aid Quality Review provided support and recommendations to USAID to improve nutrition among vulnerable people for whom the distribution of food assistance can make a significant impact. This legacy website includes a wealth of resources and research to further work in emergency settings.
Improving Nutritional Status among Urban Poor Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Evidence-Informed Delphi-Based Consultation
Mutisya, Maurice, Oonagh Markey, Emily K. Rousham, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, November 2020
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Research Articles
Little is known about how urbanization influences infant and young child (IYC) feeding practices, and evidence-based interventions to improve IYC health/nutrition among the urban poor are lacking. To maximize effectiveness, future complementary feeding interventions should include an assessment of diet quality and consider nutrition-sensitive factors during development and evaluation.
Improving Parenting Practices and Development for Young Children in Rwanda: Results from a Randomized Control Trial
Abimpaye, Monique, Caroline Dusabe, Jean Providence Nzabonimpa, Richard Ashford, Lauren Pisani. International Journal of Behavioral Development. July 16, 2019
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
The first years of life have long-term impacts on children’s development across language, cognitive, social-emotional, and motor domains, yet evidence on critical parent-young child interactions in low-income settings is scarce. A cluster randomized control trial in Rwanda compared the outcomes of light-touch and full-intervention 17-week courses on parenting skills and child development for families with children aged 6–36 months. The results revealed that children in the light-touch and full-intervention groups scored significantly higher on early childhood development scales across all domains than the control group.
Improving the Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health: Implementation Guide for National, District, and Facility Levels
World Health Organization, May 2022
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
The guide provides practical guidance for policymakers, program managers, health practitioners, and other actors working to establish and implement quality of care programs for maternal, newborn, and child health.
Improving Treatment of Wasting in Children through iCCM
Child Health Task Force, Feb 2022
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Events
Speakers share policy, programmatic, and operational learnings from integrating community-based management of acute malnutrition with integrated community case management. This is a webinar and slide deck presentation.
Improving Young Children’s Diets During the Complementary Feeding Period
UNICEF, February 2020
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
The complementary feeding period from 6 to 23 months of age is important for promoting physical and cognitive development, the effects of which will last into adulthood. This UNICEF guidance not only provides information on the benefits of and steps for complementary feeding, but also recognizes the difficulties many face in providing nutritious and sustainable diets for young children. It provides frameworks and interventions for improving diets based on these constraints at the individual, institutional, and policy levels.
In the Interest of Every Woman’s Health and Nutrition
USAID Advancing Nutrition, October 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Critical gaps in programming tools to improve women’s diets throughout the life cycle remain. USAID Advancing Nutrition developed a learning agenda to synthesize findings related to healthy diets and is focusing on multi-sectoral nutrition programming and gender dynamics in five key areas: food market environments, demand generation, family diets, policy implementation, and counseling and health service delivery.
In Pursuit of More Fruitful Food Systems
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, October 2022
- Food Systems
Reports and Tools
An integrated methodology that includes climate, crop, economic, and life cycle assessment models could more accurately project future yields; determine where fruit and vegetable crops may become more profitable or environmentally advantageous to produce; and assess climate change impacts on crops, including the impact on yield, irrigation demand, and the environmental footprint.
INCAP Longitudinal Study: 50 Years of History and Legacy
Ramirez-Zea, Manuel, Mónica Mazariegos. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, March 2020
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
A cohort of children who participated in a nutritional supplementation intervention from 1969–1977 has been followed since. Follow-up studies demonstrate strong evidence of the impact of investments in nutrition, health, and childcare in the first 1,000 days on child development, well-being, and human capital later in life. This article is behind a paywall.
Inclusive Food System Transformations for Healthy Diets: National Experiences with a Global Challenge
CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, April 2020
- Food Systems
Reports and Tools
Each country’s food system is unique. Although context-specific approaches are critical to transforming food systems for better nutrition, policymakers and implementers can learn from each other's successes and challenges. This brief presents case studies on four countries—Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Vietnam—whose food systems range from traditional to modern. They highlight each country’s challenges, approaches, and priorities to share experiences and reveal lessons for other countries.
Increasing Breastmilk Supply
La Leche League, March 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The poster focuses on increasing breastmilk supply by adopting skin-to-skin contact, frequent breastfeeding, and breast compression practices. It is available in Bulgarian, Chinese (traditional and simplified), English, German, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.