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…
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Measure & Adapt: How are school feeding programs changing during COVID-19?
Schools across the world closed alongside national lockdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19, leaving many children without access to school meals. Schools are important platforms for delivering high-impact health, nutrition-specific, and nutrition-sensitive interventions like school feeding programs. The World Food Programme (WFP) launched the Global Monitoring of School Meals during COVID-19 School Closures map in March 2020 to track…
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Unpacking a framework for measuring infant and young child feeding counselling coverage in household surveys
Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling is important to facilitate optimal feeding practices and improve child survival. I sat down with Sunny Kim, Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute and DataDENT team member, to discuss the recent paper “Measuring coverage of infant and young child feeding counselling interventions: A framework and empirical considerations for survey question…
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Overview of WHO’s Essential nutrition actions: mainstreaming nutrition through the life-course
This week at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), UN Member States adopted a landmark declaration on universal health coverage (UHC). Improving integration of nutrition interventions within health services is a key component of UHC and tackling malnutrition across all life stages. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines UHC as all people and populations having access to primary health care…
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Innovations in Nutrition Measurement: Lessons Learned from Population-Based Household Surveys in Burkina Faso and Kenya
A resident enumerator in Burkina Faso prepares for the third round of data collection for PMA2020, a mobile technology-based survey project that supports routine, rapid-turnaround, high quality data on family planning and other health indicators. ©2016 PMA2020/Shani Turke, Courtesy of Photoshare Countries with high burdens of malnutrition have increased investment in nutrition, but monitoring and evaluation efforts have been hindered…
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Quantifying the nutrition transition among children in low- and middle-income countries
© 2012 Akintunde Akinleye/NURHI, Courtesy of Photoshare Over 25 years ago, Dr. Barry Popkin described a global “nutrition transition” – a shift of diets high in fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats to diets high in sugar, saturated fat, and processed foods [1]. This nutrition transition was an “emerging crisis” for low-income countries and linked to changes in demography, epidemiology, and…
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Malnutrition: a key barrier to women and girls’ empowerment
© 2017 Dr. Mohd. Irfan Ahamad Seyyed, Courtesy of Photoshare March 8th marks International Women’s Day, an annual celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political contributions of women. Since 1911, International Women’s Day has been an official day to measure and celebrate progress towards gender parity. Many individuals and institutions have come to focus on women’s economic and social…