This learning brief summarizes key results from the baseline survey component of a longitudinal study examining factors contributing to nutrition outcomes and the influence of these factors over time and across seasons. Factors include infant and young child feeding; morbidity and maternal diet; livelihood dynamics; access to and availability of water, household hygiene, and food safety; caregiver and household health-seeking behavior; gender; women’s time poverty, decision-making, and control over resources; and household exposure and response to shocks. The study findings are consistent with other survey findings that mid-upper arm circumference consistently underestimates global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates relative to weight-for-height z-scores in the arid and semi-arid lands. High baseline levels of GAM in both counties, with variation by livelihood group and survey zone, have implications for where and who to target, but additional rounds of data are needed to understand and act on trends. The first round of the study was unable to immediately draw correlations between baseline GAM rates and explanatory variables. Additional trend data are needed to understand how drivers and rates of persistent GAM may vary among children of adolescent mothers.