Reorienting Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya: A Review
Shumba, Constance, Rose Maina, Gladys Mbuthia, et al. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, September 2020
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
To mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on children and their caregivers, authors advocate for full financing and operationalization of service provision that transcends COVID-19 barriers and addresses health, social and child protection, economic protection, and child development. Recommended strategies include providing cash transfers and essential supplies to vulnerable households, strengthening community-based platforms for nurturing care, and conducting research on the social, mental, and physical health consequences of the pandemic.
Research Findings on Resilience & Social Cohesion in Burkina Faso and Niger
Agrilinks, July 2023
- Food Systems
Events
Deteriorating security impacts food security through loss of access to agricultural and pastoral production areas; disruption of economic activities or loss of livelihoods; reduced access to labor and agricultural inputs; and the closure or limited functioning of health services, schools, and markets. Research explores how integrated resilience interventions can contribute to reducing tensions and improving social cohesion. This is a webinar.
Research Findings on Resilience & Social Cohesion in Burkina Faso and Niger
International Food Policy Research Institute, July 2023
- Food Systems
Events
Researchers discuss how multi-sectoral World Food Program interventions, partnerships, and collaborations have reduced tensions and improved social cohesion in fragile contexts. This is a webinar. It is in English with simultaneous interpretation into French.
Research Priorities for Nutrition of School-Aged Children and Adolescents in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Lelijveld, Natasha, Stephanie V. Wrottesley, Dina Aburmishan, et al. PLOS ONE, January 2023
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Research Articles
This study suggests research priorities to tackle malnutrition in school-age children and adolescents, including identifying the most effective delivery strategies to reach adolescents; exploring and improving existing interventions; the best way to package multi-sectoral programs, especially those focused on antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant adolescent girls; and establishing ways to reach vulnerable and underserved populations, including out-of-school adolescents.
A Research Vision for Food Systems in the 2020s: Defying the Status Quo
Fanzo, Jessica, Namukolo Covic, Achim Dobermann, et al. Global Food Security, September 2020
- Food Systems
Reports and Tools
Food systems research and science to ensure that food is accessible, sustainable, safe, healthy, and equitable is critical and must be quickly translated into policy and action. COVID-19 further highlights the importance of governance, efficiency, resilience, functionality of food systems, and the strong interconnections between food and health. Research should focus on price volatility, ethics, governance, biofuels, biodiversity and ecosystem services, drivers of dietary choice, high-tech agriculture, zoonotic diseases, and social protection.
Research, Development and Capacity Building for Food and Nutrition Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Jideani, Afam I. O. International Journal of Food Studies, October 2020
- Capacity Strengthening
Research Articles
Improving food and nutrition security requires broad access to secondary, tertiary, and vocational education and skill development training, and women’s leadership and engagement in training. It also requires commitment to research and development, biotechnology, indigenous knowledge, and information and communication technologies. Greater financial and technical support will strengthen national and regional institutions, increase agricultural output, and improve the efficiency of delivering goods and services.
Reshaping Food Policy and Governance to Incentivize and Empower Disadvantaged Groups for Improving Nutrition
Wang, Jingjing, Xinyue Ding, Haixiu Gao, et al. Nutrients, February 2022
- Food Systems
Research Articles
To end malnutrition in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, multiple sectors—including health, agriculture, social protection, education, and infrastructure—must collaborate more effectively to develop and implement food and nutrition policies.
Resilience of Local Food Systems and Links to Food Security – A Review of Some Important Concepts in the Context of COVID-19 and Other Shocks
Béné, Christophe. Journal of Food Security, July 2020
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Research Articles
Structural issues such as bad roads and limited markets impact geographic and economic isolation, while additional shocks such as COVID-19 have devastating impacts on food security and resilience. It is important to simultaneously focus on the initial impacts of the shock, such as crop destruction and the multiple consequences of COVID-19, and on recovery actions. A food system resilience framework identifies economic, institutional, and social dependencies among policymakers and other actors, and points to complexities that impact the food system.
Resilient Health Systems: Adaptive Management Tools to Maintain and Strengthen Nutrition Services
CORE Group, October 2021
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Events
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.
Resilient Health Systems: Adaptive Management Tools to Maintain and Strengthen Nutrition Services
The CORE Group, October 2021
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Events
These tools and approaches improve emergency preparedness and support health systems to respond to increased demands resulting from seasonal and unforeseen shocks and stresses. This is a webinar.
Resources for Community Health Workers: Strengthening Nutrition Counseling through Empathetic Care
Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria, USAID Advancing Nutrition, March 2023
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Events
This webinar highlights resources developed by Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria using human-centered design to help community health workers improve nutrition counseling. Speakers discuss the Infant and Young Child Feeding Image Bank and how to adapt materials to local contexts and engaged in a question-and-answer session.
Responding to COVID-19’s Impact on Resilience and Food Security
U.S. Agency for International Development, August 2020
- Food Systems
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
The U.S. Agency for International Development predicts that 148 million additional people may fall into extreme poverty and that emergency food assistance needs will increase by 25% due to COVID-19. This collection provides information and resources related to food security, nutrition, and safe and sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene and highlights the role well-functioning markets and supply chains must play, both of which are impacted by COVID-19.
Responsive Care and Early Learning Addendum
USAID Advancing Nutrition, December 2023
- Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
The package includes illustrated counseling cards; training materials; and a guide for planning, adapting, and implementing individual and group counseling sessions. Accompanying videos show real caregiver-child interactions for newborns and young children and counseling sessions between a health worker and caregiver.
Responsive Care and Early Learning Addendum for IYCF Counseling
USAID Advancing Nutrition, March 2022
- Early Childhood Development
Reports and Tools
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.
Responsive Feeding Recommendations: Harmonizing Integration into Dietary Guidelines for Infants and Young Children
Current Developments in Nutrition, April 2021
Reports and Tools
Evidence-based responsive feeding (RF) recommendations should be incorporated into dietary guidance for infant and young child feeding and grounded in responsive parenting and feeding frameworks. Authors recommend replicating the National Academies’ scoping review and mixed-methods implementation science research to increase understanding of how to disseminate and implement RF-related recommendations across settings.
Rethinking Responsive Feeding: Insights from Bangladesh
Black, Maureen M., Fahmida Tofail, Eric A. Hodges, et al. Nutrients, July 2022
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
Most measures of responsive feeding do not include bidirectional mother-infant responsivity or early learning principles and have not been validated against observations. Findings in Bangladesh support responsive feeding as modulating between proximal and distal responsivity, promoting autonomy and self-regulation, and helping children develop and practice healthy eating habits.
Rethinking Trade Policies to Support Sustainable Food Systems and Healthy Diets
Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, February 2020
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Reports and Tools
Trade policy is an underutilized tool in efforts to improve diets and nutrition. That is the argument made by the authors of this policy brief, which describes how policy is often driven by goals, such as income and economic growth, with little consideration for nutrition. The authors outline opportunities and actions related to trade policy and instruments that governments and stakeholders can use to support healthy diets.
Reverse Thinking: Taking a Healthy Diet Perspective Towards Food Systems Transformations
Brouwer, I. D., M. J. van Liere, A. de Brauw, et al. Food Security, October 2021
- Food Systems
Research Articles
A healthy diet perspective is essential to ensure food systems focus on supplying nutritious foods and providing equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and culturally acceptable diets. The paper discusses converging and conflicting objectives that exist among food-system actors, argues that failure to strengthen synergies and resolve trade-offs may lead to missed opportunities and negative unintended consequences, and highlights promising policy options to shift consumer demand to healthier diets.
A Review of Child Focused Multi Sectoral Programming in Africa and Latin America
Child Health Task Force, August 2022
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The report discusses successes and failures in implementing multi-sectoral programs, presents lessons learned from collaborating across sectors, identifies knowledge gaps, and articulates a research agenda for multi-sectoral child health approaches.
Review of Existing Models to Predict Reductions in Neural Tube Defects Due to Folic Acid Fortification and Model Results Using Data from Cameroon
Luo, Hanqi, Kenneth H Brown, Christine P Stewart, et al. Advances in Nutrition, July 2021
Research Articles
Collecting dietary and biomarker data as well as neural tube defect outcome data should accompany modeling to predict the effects of folic acid intake or status on neural tube defect risk. Researchers recommend using models based on erythrocyte folate concentration.
A Review of Leadership and Capacity Gaps in Nutrition-Sensitive Agricultural Policies and Strategies for Selected Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
Aryeetey, Richmond, Namukolo Covic. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, September 2020
- Capacity Strengthening
Research Articles
In assessing the degree to which agricultural policies, programs, and investments are nutrition-sensitive, authors argue that there is limited capacity to translate policy and program instruments into effective action. This article is behind a paywall.
A Review of Measures and Indicators for Assessing the Relationship between Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition
CGIAR, October 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
This paper identifies how relationships between women’s empowerment and nutrition have historically been assessed and what components of women’s empowerment may be most useful in influencing diet and nutrition outcomes among women and children.
A Review of Nutrition-Related Service Delivery Packages: What They Train Providers to Deliver
Emergency Nutrition Network, January 2021
Reports and Tools
Results of a review by USAID Advancing Nutrition emphasize the importance of promoting responsive caregiving and early learning, and supplementing training to ensure that health workers can tailor counseling to individual breastfeeding challenges, particularly in emergency contexts. Training to encourage greater consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and reduced consumption of foods with limited nutritional value may also be appropriate.
A Review of Research Methods Used to Study Specialised Nutritious Foods
Caiafa, Kristine, Maria Wrabel, Devika Suri, et al. Field Exchange, Vol. 62, p. 41, April 2020
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
The authors collected and analyzed research methodologies from 114 studies of programs that used specialized foods to influence anthropometric outcomes. The analysis identified elements of the methodologies that can be strengthened to develop a more rigorous evidence base. The authors found research bias, heterogeneous study design, and insufficiently reported study details as barriers to robust evidence. The review also provides a list of actions to build a higher-quality evidence base for translating research on specialized nutritious food into policy and practice.