The Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in December 2021 will provide a critical opportunity for the nutrition community to renew and expand commitments to address malnutrition globally in pursuit of the 2025 World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets. Data-driven accountability is a core focus of the N4G vision as improved data, measurement, and use is essential to drive equitable…
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Launch of the Compendium of Nutrition Intervention Coverage Indicators & Questions for Household Surveys
We are thrilled to launch the Compendium of Nutrition Intervention Coverage Indicators & Questions for Household Surveys today! The Compendium is a technical resource that can help national and subnational stakeholders fill information gaps around who is receiving nutrition interventions through health systems. Building on a set of indicators proposed in “Measuring the coverage of nutrition interventions along the continuum…
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Are data available for tracking progress on nutrition policies and programs in South Asia?
The South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) have endorsed the 2030 global nutrition targets of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2). Efforts are underway in the region to implement global recommendations on nutrition actions to address all forms of malnutrition along the life-course. Despite these efforts, the South Asia region continues to have the…
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Let’s make a plan!
Last month the Micronutrient Forum (MNF) released a Micronutrient Data Generation Initiative Strategic Plan—a comprehensive strategy for how to fill long-standing gaps in data on the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies across low- and middle-income countries. The strategy is noteworthy on multiple levels, but in particular for its theory of change which describes the steps and enabling factors required to achieve…
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Measuring the Effectiveness of Nutrition Advocacy
What is advocacy for nutrition policy? Many policy reforms emerge after sustained periods of advocacy. In the field of nutrition, advocates have played a critical role in raising awareness about the causes and consequences of malnutrition and which interventions governments should pursue to improve the health of their populations. Advocacy can be defined as “a continuous and adaptive process of…
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Mind the (Data) Gap: Understanding the gender dimensions of food security
Gender is a social determinant of health which can have a significant impact on an individual’s nutrition status. The 2020 Global Nutrition Report (GNR) Nutrition Equity Framework illustrates how basic and underlying determinants, including gender, are interlinked and contribute towards nutrition inequity. Sociocultural perception of gender affects power dynamics and access to nutrition services and interventions. For example, gendered norms…
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Revisiting Core Indicators: Principles from the updated WHO-UNICEF Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) indicator guidance
In April 2021, WHO and UNICEF released updated definitions and measurement guidance for indicators to assess infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. Originally released in 2008, indicators of diet quality for children 0-23 months of age have been an essential tool for policy makers and program planners within and across low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). The indicators, which…
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Creating Effective Accountability DVTs: Four Lessons from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Nutrition Scorecard
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) is a non-partisan policy-hub dedicated to promoting good governance and development at the sub-national level. The forum has a strong track record of using data to inform decision-making and improve advocacy among Nigeria’s Governors. For example, the NGF designed and implemented several state-level scorecards to engage Governors around key policy issues including polio eradication, state-supported…
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Advancing the data and accountability agenda for maternal and child undernutrition
On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2021, a Lancet series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition (MCUN) Progress was launched as part of the Nutrition Year of Action—a year-long effort to drive momentum on tackling malnutrition ahead of the 2021 Nutrition for Growth Summit. The goal of the series is to accelerate progress towards reaching the 2025 World Health Assembly nutrition targets and…
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Nutrition-Sensitive Social Protection Programs: What, Why and How Can We Measure Them?
What is nutrition-sensitive social protection? Nutrition-sensitive sectors address the underlying determinants of maternal and child malnutrition (e.g. food security, education), and investments in these sectors are critical to global strategies for eliminating undernutrition. As a cross-cutting dimension, social protection is core to nutrition-sensitive actions. Social protection initiatives aim to protect families from poverty and vulnerability by offering a mix of…