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.
This document provides practical guidance to apply social and behavioral change principles and approaches to strategize, design, diagnose, and define activities.
Measuring Social and Behavior Change in Nutrition Programs: A Guide for Evaluators
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Social and Behavior Change and Gender
This guide supports implementing partners involved in conducting evaluations of social and behavior change activities to improve multi-sectoral nutrition outcomes.
Factors Influencing the Practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding and Other Infant Feeding Practices in the First Six Months of Life in West and Central Africa
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderBreastfeedingInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
It is important to identify and understand motivations of people who influence infant feeding and care practices as well as factors that facilitate and prevent exclusive breastfeeding when designing interventions. Social and behavior change interventions grounded in this understanding are critical to tailor responses that are respectful, genuine, and acceptable to the families and communities.
Qualitative Evidence for Improved Caring, Feeding and Food Production Practices after Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Interventions in Rural Vietnam
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Social and Behavior Change and GenderNutrition Sensitive Agriculture
Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs enhance self-reliance in communities and integrating behavior change activities increases the effect of agricultural interventions on nutrition outcomes. Though outcomes and influencing factors are context-dependent, lessons could inform the design and implementation of effective behavior change strategies.
A Synthesis of Research and Learning on Persistent Global Acute Malnutrition in the Kenyan Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWasting
This report synthesizes key findings about acute malnutrition and the immediate, underlying, and basic drivers of it in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya. It presents evidence gaps, and lessons for operationalizing efforts to reduce acute malnutrition and drive systemic change.
The Impact of Climate Change on Children's Nutritional Status in Coastal Bangladesh
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Excess heat at birth had negative effects on the nutritional status of very young children, while humidity had positive effects on children's mid-upper arm circumference. Explanations include consequences of weather fluctuations on the extent of pasture, cropland, and rain-fed lands planted with rice and other crops, and on mother's age at first marriage. This article is behind a paywall.
Nutrition Status of Refugee and Host-Country Children: Negotiating for Equal Distribution of Relief Food during Emergencies in Uganda
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsEmergency Nutrition
Refugee children from South Sudan had better nutrition status than those in the host country. The Ugandan government should formulate a policy to ensure equal benefits from food relief. This article is behind a paywall.
Children Born during the Hunger Season are at a Higher Risk of Severe Acute Malnutrition: Findings from a Guinea Sahelian Ecological Zone in Northern Ghana
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Nutrition in Humanitarian ContextsWastingFood Security
Children born in the hunger season and with low birth weight are at higher risk of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Being female and of the Nankam ethno-linguistic group also increased the odds of SAM. A sustainable food supply to pregnant and lactating women through improved agriculture or food system change targeting the hunger season may reduce SAM.
Opportunities to Strengthen Maternal Nutrition Programs within Health Systems — Operational Guidance and Country Perspectives
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
Presenters present practical guidance for designing, implementing, and strengthening the delivery of maternal nutrition interventions during pregnancy and lactation, and successes, challenges, and priorities for strengthening interventions at the country level. This is a webinar with accompanying materials.
Weight Gain during Pregnancy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
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Nutrition and Health SystemsMaternal Nutrition
The report prevents prevalence data and highlights the need to prioritize inadequate weight gain. It presents current data about monitoring and counseling interventions, discusses the impact of maternal balanced energy and protein supplementation on weight gain, and provides recommendations to strengthen interventions.
How the Marketing of Formula Milk Influences Our Decisions on Infant Feeding
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Nutrition and Health SystemsBreastfeeding
This report exposes the aggressive marketing practices used by the formula milk industry, highlights the effects on women and families, and outlines opportunities for action.
Assessment: Centers of Excellence Model is Strengthening Health Systems in Southeast Asia
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Capacity StrengtheningNutrition and Health SystemsBreastfeeding
The Centers of Excellence (CoE) for Breastfeeding model adds value to government-led efforts to scale up essential newborn care and breastfeeding-friendly health services. Engaging champions, providing high-quality technical assistance, and focusing on integrating CoE principles into national health monitoring systems enable implementation and sustainability.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Articles focus on wasting and stunting risk factors among internally displaced people, understanding sex differences in childhood malnutrition, scaling child wasting prevention and treatment in the context of stunting prevention, nutrition impact and positive practices, and promoting linear growth when treating child wasting, among others.
Nutrition Modeling Tools: A Qualitative Study of Influence on Policy Decision Making and Determining Factors
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Nutrition modeling tools (NMTs) have wide-ranging influence across policy and program cycles and contexts, but the impact depends on the tool application process, accompanying advocacy, and the expertise, capabilities, and resources of local teams.
National, Regional, and Global Estimates of Anaemia by Severity in Women and Children for 2000–19: A Pooled Analysis of Population-Representative Data
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Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningAnemiaMicronutrient Interventions
Progress on anemia in women ages 15–49 years is insufficient to meet World Health Assembly global nutrition targets. The prevalence of anemia in children also remains high. Better understanding of context-specific causes of anemia and high-quality implementation of effective multi-sectoral actions to mitigate these causes are critical.
Advancements in Understanding Breastmilk: Learning from the BEGIN Project
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Knowledge ManagementBreastfeeding
The Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN) project analyzes human milk by exploring it as a complex biological system and examining its interactions with its internal (parental biology) and external (infant interactions) environments. This webinar presents findings of the BEGIN project and discusses its implications moving forward.
African Leaders for Nutrition proposes securing investments for a comprehensive nutrition action plan, identifying cost-effective interventions that can be quickly and easily delivered, and encouraging Africa’s leaders to show accountability as they work to end hunger. The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard can frame and track implementation of these priority efforts.
How Hinga Weze Supported Smallholder Farmers to Improve Crop Productivity, Incomes, and Nutritional Status
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Knowledge ManagementInfant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)Maternal NutritionNutrition Sensitive Agriculture
Hinga Weze trained and supported farmers, partnered with financial institutions and business development service providers to create agricultural loan products, created and strengthened solidarity savings groups, and strengthened extension services.
The report examines the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on poverty, food security, nutrition, and health globally. It presents key lessons on food security and food system resilience and assesses policy responses to the crisis. Authors consider how the pandemic experience can inform recovery and longer-term efforts to build more resilient food systems.