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.
Family Friendly Policies: Redesigning the Workplace of the Future
Publication Date:
Early Childhood DevelopmentSocial and Behavior Change and Gender
Most workplaces around the world have not yet adopted family-friendly policies. Yet such policies can play an important role in supporting the overall wellbeing of families, helping them excel professionally, financially, academically, and in achieving lifelong health.
Early Childhood Development Through a Gender Lens: Designing Policies that Work for the Whole Family
Publication Date:
Early Childhood DevelopmentFood Systems
The links between early childhood development and women’s economic empowerment were the subject of the fifth annual Birdsall House Conference on Women.
Maternal Dietary Diversity and the Implications for Children’s Diets in the Context of Food Security
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This technical brief describes findings from the Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project’s study to evaluate the relationship between maternal dietary diversity and children’s dietary intake in three developing countries in different regions.
MCSP Nutrition Brief: Key Country Experiences in Addressing Maternal Nutrition through Nutrition-Health Integrated Programming
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This nutrition brief presents a summary of interventions supported by the Maternal Child Survival Program at the country level that aim to improve maternal nutrition in low- and middle-income countries.
Understanding Challenges and Opportunities for Improved Maternal Nutrition
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This review summarizes qualitative research findings on maternal nutrition from nine Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project country programs. The document describes sociocultural barriers to improved nutrition and offers recommendations for improving maternal nutrition programming.
Review of Programmatic Responses to Adolescent and Women’s Nutritional Needs in Low and Middle Income Countries
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
The goal of this paper is to review the approaches used, practices promoted, and lessons learned by projects and programs that set out to improve the nutrition of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries.
Qualitative Assessment of Maternal Nutrition Practices in Zambia
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This report on the findings of a qualitative assessment conducted jointly by the Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project and the National Food and Nutrition Commission provides insight into maternal nutritional knowledge and practices.
The U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy presents an integrated approach to combating the root causes of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. This guidance on nutrition is one of 18 technical guidance documents intended to provide a shared understanding of key concepts and best practices for designing and implementing Feed the Future programs under the Global Food Security Strategy.
Nurturing Connections: Adapted for Homestead Food Production and Nutrition
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
The curriculum provides a progressive series of facilitated discussions, each 2 to 3 hours in length and conducted in the community. Initially participants meet separately in peer groups: mothers (beneficiaries), their husbands, and influential elders. At the end of each discussion, the groups come together to share their learning and build a shared vision for change.
Maternal Nutrition Programming in the Context of the 2016 WHO Antenatal Care Guidelines
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This brief operationalizes the revised World Health Organization 2016 antenatal care recommendations, providing guidance on how programs can plan and implement nutrition and anemia interventions for pregnant women. It is intended for program implementers, district- and health facility-level program managers, and policymakers.
This poster provides practical examples of nutritious and affordable foods that can be made using locally available items, with suggested proportions depicted on a plate. This allows for a more easily understood message about dietary diversity and a healthy diet. The poster also provides information about the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding.
Guidance for Formative Research on Maternal Nutrition
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This guidance document is intended to increase the awareness and understanding of optimal maternal nutrition practices and to support people who are working to translate optimal practices into feasible actions and programs for a given country or region.
Cultural Beliefs and Perceptions of Maternal Diet and Weight Gain during Pregnancy and Postpartum Family Planning in Egypt
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This report addresses behaviors, perceptions, and cultural beliefs in relation to maternal dietary intake during pregnancy, lactation and non-lactation, weight gain during pregnancy, birth spacing and family planning, and how these beliefs may provide context for improving infant and young child feeding practices.
Addressing Barriers to Maternal Nutrition: Evidence and Program Considerations
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This brief presents a summary of a literature review of barriers to maternal nutrition and weight gain during pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries.
Addressing Barriers to Maternal Nutrition in Low‐ and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of the Evidence and Programme Implications
Publication Date:
Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
This literature review was conducted to identify barriers to food choice and consumption during pregnancy and lactation and to examine how low‐ and middle‐income countries have addressed maternal nutrition in programs. It included a review of peer‐reviewed and gray literature and titles and abstracts reviewed by authors. Twenty‐three studies were included in this review.
Advancing Gender in the Environment: Gender in Fisheries—A Sea of Opportunities
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Social and Behavior Change and Gender
This guide summarizes research on the intersection of gender and wild-caught fisheries, exploring the ways in which fisheries offer important entry points to enhance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment while also contributing to more effective interventions and more sustainable outcomes.
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide research questions to guide data collection when performing a project-level gender analysis. The tool presents illustrative general and health area-specific questions organized in matrices related to different levels of the health system.
REALIZE: Social and Behavioral Change for Gender Equity and Diversity
Publication Date:
Social and Behavior Change and Gender
The aim of these lessons is to build awareness, facilitate critical reflective dialogue, and explore potential action to improve gender equity and diversity among development staff and community members, and to identify gender equity and diversity linkages within social and behavior change interventions to increase their effectiveness.
This guidance helps organizations integrate behaviors into their programming to make the best use of available resources and achieve rapid results. Behavior Integration Guidance (Think | BIG) is a behavior-centered process for reaching development goals.