USAID Advancing Nutrition develops, curates, packages, and shares multi-sectoral nutrition knowledge to help you stay on top of developments and evidence in global nutrition programming.
Social and Behavior Change and GenderGender Equality and Women’s EmpowermentGender
Gender equality and women’s empowerment are fundamental rights that are key to achieving sustained nutrition outcomes. Recognizing these facts, USAID Advancing Nutrition developed a project-wide strategy to help integrate gender into the project's work.
Tool and Guide for Reviewing the Nutrition Content of Pre-Service Training Curricula
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Identification and Use of Nutrition CompetenciesNutrition and Health SystemsAnemiaBreastfeedingInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionMicronutrient InterventionsNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
Quality pre-service training forms the foundation of all nutrition services, equipping health professionals with the competencies required to deliver quality services from day one on the job. However, nutrition content is often outdated and can be difficult to integrate into pre-service training.
Planning Nutritionally Adequate Diets for Groups: Methods Used to Develop Recommendations for a Child and Adult Care Food Program
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Adolescent NutritionInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
Because of between-person variations in food choices and nutrient requirements, it is important to select a Target Median Intake that will minimize inadequate nutrient intakes. Ensuring that distributions do not result in intakes that exceed the Tolerable Upper Intake Level for any nutrient is critical. This article is behind a paywall.
New Partnerships Initiative and USAID Advancing Nutrition
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Capacity Strengthening
USAID Advancing Nutrition has funding available through the New Partnerships Initiative (NPI) to support organizations to implement multi-sectoral nutrition projects in USAID global health priority countries.
A Learning and Sharing “Café”: IYCF Programming Adaptations in the Context of COVID-19 – Second Cafe
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderBreastfeedingCOVID-19Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
This platform encourages countries to share lessons learned and experiences with adapting infant and young child feeding (IYCF) programs during COVID-19. It provides videos on breastfeeding and complementary feeding, social media content on IYCF, a detailed review of counseling packages for IYCF, and materials focusing on feeding when COVID is suspected or confirmed.
Managing Nutrition Myths and Misconceptions During COVID-19: Technical Brief
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderBreastfeedingCOVID-19
Misinformation has led to unnecessary separation of infants and mothers with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection during delivery and breastfeeding. It has also led to mistrust of the health care system, delayed care-seeking of nutrition services, and limited uptake of COVID-19 preventive practices.
Make Me a Change Agent: An SBC Resource for WASH, Agriculture, and Livelihoods Activities
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderEconomic GrowthWater, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
This guide focuses on training frontline workers to promote behavior change related to water, sanitation, and hygiene, agriculture, and livelihoods. The highly participatory training includes lessons on effective communication, facilitation, negotiation, social and behavior change, action planning, quality improvement, and giving and receiving feedback.
Guidance on SBC for Nutrition During COVID-19: Technical Brief
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderCOVID-19Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Practitioners must find new ways to engage families and communities while following physical distancing guidelines and may need to adapt messaging and calls to action to acknowledge the reality of people’s daily lives.
Men's Nutrition Knowledge is Important for Women's and Children's Nutrition in Ethiopia
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderMaternal NutritionNutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS)
Men's nutrition knowledge has significant, positive, and additive associations with households', children's, and women's dietary diversity. Research exploring how nutrition knowledge is gendered and how to engage men in programming may lead to better nutrition outcomes.
Gender Accommodative Versus Transformative Approaches: A Comparative Assessment within a Post-Harvest Fish Loss Reduction Intervention
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Social and Behavior Change and Gender
A gender transformative approach encourages critical awareness of gender norms, challenges gender-based work and resource allocations, and addresses power relationships between women and others in the community. It encourages women and men to jointly identify shifts in norms or behaviors they would like to see and provides space to test new ways of engaging.
Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment of Wasting in Children 0-59 Months through National Health Systems in the Context of COVID-19
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWastingCOVID-19Emergency NutritionInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
This document adapts existing guidance on service delivery for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of child wasting in the context of COVID-19.
Global Nutrition Cluster: 2020 Mid-Year Report (Jan-Jun)
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWastingEmergency Nutrition
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.
Evidence and Guidance Note on the Use of Cash and Voucher Assistance for Nutrition Outcomes in Emergencies
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWastingEmergency NutritionFood SecurityMicronutrient InterventionsMaternal Nutrition
Cash and voucher assistance can improve maternal and child nutrition by increasing individuals’ ability to purchase goods and access services. Conditional transfers increase participation in nutrition social behavior change activities and preventive health services.
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
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsCOVID-19Food SecurityResilience
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.
Impacts of COVID-19 on Childhood Malnutrition and Nutrition-Related Mortality
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWastingCOVID-19Economic GrowthFood SecurityInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Authors expect COVID-19 to exacerbate all forms of malnutrition, and estimate that people facing acute food insecurity will nearly double to 265 million this year.
Protecting, Promoting and Supporting Breastfeeding: The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative for Small, Sick and Preterm Newborns
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Nutrition and Health SystemsBreastfeedingInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Poor planning for breastfeeding, inconsistent advice, misinformation, lack of knowledge or time, and facility policies impact breastfeeding small, sick, and preterm infants.
Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Training Course for Maternity Staff
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Nutrition and Health SystemsBreastfeeding
Many health workers lack training to support women to establish and sustain breastfeeding. This resource provides guidance for leaders to plan a course and select trainers and participants. The trainer's guide contains slides and other materials to facilitate the course, while the participant manual provides worksheets, checklists, and job aids.
Maternal Diets Matter for Children's Dietary Quality: Seasonal Dietary Diversity and Animal-Source Foods Consumption in Rural Timor-Leste
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal NutritionNutrition Sensitive Agriculture
Women's dietary quality and education levels are strong predictors of children's dietary diversity and consumption of animal-source foods, while seasonality impacts diversity and consumption. Production, affordability, and consumption of nutrient‐dense foods require widespread market access and sustained nutrition‐sensitive programs.
Making the Health System Work for the Delivery of Nutrition Interventions
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Nutrition and Health SystemsWastingMicronutrient InterventionsMaternal Nutrition
Successful delivery of nutrition interventions requires a skilled and motivated health workforce, an effective supply chain, demand for services, and access to services. Programs should encourage delivery of nutrition interventions at every client-provider interaction and should actively generate demand for both general and nutrition services.