Transforming Capacity-Strengthening in an Era of Sustainable Development
Heerdegen, Anne Christine Stender. International Journal of Public Health, October 2020
- Capacity Strengthening
Reports and Tools
District health managers (DHMs) are charged with turning policies and resources into accessible and high-quality health services, but resource uncertainty and limited decision-making authority limit their ability to do so. Successful capacity strengthening requires understanding individual, organizational, and contextual factors that influence the work of DHMs. Collaborating with DHMs and other local stakeholders using a systemic and participatory approach will generate culturally appropriate and contextualized approaches to reduce bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
Transforming Food Systems from Within
Conscious Food Systems Alliance, February 2023
- Food Systems
Events
Food, agriculture, and consciousness leaders discuss the importance of cultivating inner capacities that activate systemic change and regeneration and increase equity. This is a webinar.
Transforming Food Systems in Kenya for a New Era of Growth and Prosperity: Research-Based Recommendations for the New Government
International Food Policy Research Institute, November 2022
- Food Systems
Reports and Tools
This brief offers recommendations to the new Kenyan government, including allocating sufficient funding, building policy coherence, strengthening the science-policy interface, and broadening the focus from a food security to a food systems approach. It also suggests accelerating the industrialization and commercialization of food systems, expanding smallholder access to food system activities, improving nutrition through production and consumption policies, and providing better opportunities for women to make food systems more productive.
Transitioning Nutrition Programming from Humanitarian Aid to Health System Strengthening in Kenya
Emergency Nutrition Network, January 2021
Reports and Tools
Central government leadership framed by a health system strengthening approach, devolution, and increased county-level government investment has supported the transition from aid to government-led programming. Challenges include reliance on external technical assistance and securing long-term funding. Further evolution to development financing requires a vision and formalized framework.
Translating Multisectoral Nutrition Policy into Community Practice: Participation of Nutrition Officers in Tanzania Fosters Effective Collaborative Strategies to Improve Child Nutrition
Klemm, Gina C., Rosemary Kayanda, Aidan Kazoba, et al. Current Developments in Nutrition, April 2022
- Capacity Strengthening
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Research Articles
Multidisciplinary action teams bridged communication gaps between administrators and implementers; made progress on advocacy, collaboration, and budgeting for nutrition; and initiated multi-sectoral nutrition (MSN) program implementation in communities. Teams provided actionable guidance for putting MSN policy into practice and leveraging staff capacity.
The Triple Burden of Malnutrition Among Adolescents in Indonesia
Food and Nutrition Bulletin, July 2021
Reports and Tools
Information gaps about drivers and determinants of the triple burden of malnutrition, evidence-based interventions, and effective delivery platforms to reach the most vulnerable adolescents remain. Articles focus on the role of mother’s education, knowledge gaps in the etiology of anemia, the relationship between micronutrient-rich foods and anemia, factors influencing overweight and obesity, and the association of body image perception with dietary and physical activity behaviors.
Twin Peaks: The Seasonality of Acute Malnutrition, Conflict, and Environmental Factors
Feinstein International Center, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, November 2019
- Nutrition in Humanitarian Contexts
Reports and Tools
According to a long-held assumption about the seasonality of food security in Chad, Sudan, and South Sudan, the peak of malnutrition happens at the end of the lean season. This report finds that there are actually two peaks, with the worst occurring at the end of the dry season and a smaller peak at the end of the lean season. Other findings reinforce how climate and conflict lead to prolonged shocks to livelihoods.
U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau for Resilience and Food Security COVID-19 Learning Hub
Agrilinks, August 2020
- Food Systems
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
This Learning Hub disseminates lessons learned about how to prevent widespread hunger, poverty, malnutrition, and water insecurity. It also provides guidance about how to mitigate and respond to the pandemic’s impacts through agriculture, nutrition, resilience, and water security, sanitation, and hygiene policy and programming. Current resources focus on digital tools, how markets can improve resilience, gender-responsive COVID-19 policies, and acute food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.
U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy 2022–2026
USAID, October 2021
- Food Systems
Reports and Tools
This updated strategy responds to the challenges of the moment. Priorities include collaborating with local partners to address challenges to inclusion by intentionally engaging all actors, working to address the effects of climate change on agriculture, and adopting practices to counter the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional priorities include integrating social, political, and local dynamics within programming to improve food security, resilience, and nutrition outcomes; and acknowledging the journey food takes from cultivation to consumption to work across the food system, not just in particular value chains or market systems.
U.S. Government Global Nutrition Coordination Plan 2021–2026
USAID, November 2021
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
This interagency effort works to strengthen the impact of diverse nutrition investments across the government through better communication and collaboration and by linking research to program implementation.
Undernourished and Overlooked: A Global Nutrition Crisis in Adolescent Girls and Women
UNICEF, March 2023
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Reports and Tools
This report examines the current status, trends, and inequities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age, and the complex cultural, programmatic, and policy barriers they face in accessing nutritious diets, utilizing essential nutrition services, and benefiting from positive nutrition and care practices. The executive summary is available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Understanding the Relationship between WASH and Malnutrition: Analysis of Anthropometric Data of Children Attending WASH-Supported Schools in Ogun State, Nigeria
Mogaji, Hammed Oladeji, Oladunni Nimota Adekunle, Olaitan Olamide Omitola, et al. Nutrition and Health, April 2023
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
The intervention group demonstrated lower levels of stunting and underweight but higher levels of wasting in Nigeria. Regardless of water, sanitation, and hygiene programming exposure, underweight, stunting, and wasting were significantly lower among older children. This article is behind a paywall.
United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 Pre-Summit: On-Demand Sessions
United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 Pre-Summit, July 2021
Events
This series of webinars focuses on multiple elements of food systems. The recordings are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition: Resource List on Food Systems and Nutrition Responses
United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), March 2020
- Food Systems
- Knowledge Management
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
With the COVID-19 pandemic causing disruptions to food systems and food environments, a decline in optimal dietary practices could lead to serious impacts on nutritional status. To address this challenge, this curated list provides up-to-date information focused on nutrition and food systems related to COVID-19. Topics include UN agencies’ general response, food systems, pregnancy, breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding, school-age children, adults, non-communicable diseases, and emergency nutrition response. The list also provides useful links to communities of practice, blogs, and initiatives involved in the COVID-19 response.
Unleashing the Full Power of Large-Scale Food Fortification: A Renewed Commitment
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, November 2021
- Food Systems
Events
While large-scale food fortification has a record of nearly eliminating debilitating vitamin and mineral deficiencies, it is underused in ending preventable diseases and death. Speakers discuss new efforts to accelerate progress and catalyze momentum and proof-of-impact through targeted investment and political leadership. This is a webinar.
UNSCN Nutrition 45: Nutrition in a Digital World
United Nations System Committee on Nutrition, July 2020
- Food Systems
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Reports and Tools
Digital technologies to increase sustainable healthy diets and progressively realize the right to adequate food are powerful but may also have adverse impacts. This collection focuses on digital food marketing to young people, using mobile-phone technology to change behavior, improving nutrition and health data to and from remote regions, and harnessing artificial intelligence to achieve healthy and sustainable food systems.
Updating National CMAM Guidelines Lessons from Previous Experiences
Global Nutrition Cluster, June 2022
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Using country experiences developing and updating national guidelines for community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and integrated management of acute malnutrition, this report provides recommendations to national governments, the World Health Organization and other relevant United Nations agencies, and civil society organizations for updating guidelines on preventing and treating child wasting.
The Ups and Downs of Scaling Up: Advice on Scaling Norms-Shifting Intervention
Passages Project, March 2022
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Events
Challenges with scaling up interventions include transferring implementation to organizations, addressing pushback to changing norms and shifts in political support, and institutionalizing work within governmental social and behavior change programs. Lessons include developing theories of change before scale up begins, understanding the importance of stakeholder engagement when adapting approaches, seizing institutionalization opportunities, and understanding the importance of monitoring. This is a webinar and is available in English and French. It includes a slide deck in English.
USAID Administrator Power on the State of Global Food Security and Nutrition
Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2022
- Knowledge Management
Events
The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict have increased the number of acutely food insecure people to historic highs; the war in Ukraine will add to this number, which is projected to reach 323 million people in 2022. USAID, technical experts, and philanthropists pursuing public-private investment discuss steps to combat the worsening crisis. This is a webinar.
USAID Advancing Nutrition @ 22nd International Congress of Nutrition
USAID Advancing Nutrition, December 2022
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Presentations focus on tools to improve the quantity of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counseling, small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement programs, food taboos and preferences among women, the knowledge and skills needed to counsel on IYCF during and after illness, nutritional care for children with feeding difficulties and disabilities, and using child growth monitoring and promotion data for decision-making, among other topics. Accompanying resources include posters and slide decks.
USAID Advancing Nutrition Events
USAID Advancing Nutrition, October 2023
- Knowledge Management
Events
Since 2019, USAID Advancing Nutrition hosted around 50 webinars across the full spectrum of our work.
USAID Advancing Nutrition News and Features
USAID Advancing Nutrition, October 2023
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
The collection includes over 150 articles about USAID Advancing Nutrition work since 2018.
USAID Advancing Nutrition Peer-Reviewed Publications
USAID Advancing Nutrition, May 2020–October 2023
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
This collection of peer-reviewed publications since USAID Advancing Nutrition’s launch in 2018 showcases our work around micronutrient and anemia measurement, breastfeeding, and diet quality.
USAID Advancing Nutrition Presents at the 2022 International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit
USAID Advancing Nutrition, December 2022
- Knowledge Management
Reports and Tools
Summit topics include generating demand for healthy diets, supporting local leadership skills development for social and behavior change (SBC), and prioritizing behaviors for effective multi-sectoral nutrition SBC. Accompanying resources include posters and slide decks.