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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Standing Together for Better Nutrition Data during COVID-19 and Beyond
Since mid-2020, DataDENT team members have been actively involved in Standing Together for Nutrition (STfN)—a multidisciplinary consortium of economics, nutrition, and health systems experts committed to addressing COVID-related nutrition challenges. To date the consortium has released two papers presenting results from modeling exercises that project the impacts of COVID-related interruptions to economic and health systems on maternal and child nutrition…
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Tracking India’s Progress on Addressing Malnutrition and Enhancing the Use of Data to Improve Programs
In collaboration with Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthen and Harmonize Actions for Nutrition in India (POSHAN), NITI Aayog, and ID Insight, DataDENT developed a joint report addressing considerations for improving the availability and use of data to improve nutrition programs in India. The report shares a comprehensive indicator framework aligned with India’s National Nutrition Mission, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and describes a theory…
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Understanding the Role of Cognitive Interviewing in Improving Survey Questions
While answering a survey questionnaire, how do the respondents interpret the questions? What techniques of cognitive interviewing can facilitate appropriate framing of the questions? These are important considerations to have while designing survey questions to ensure that they clearly communicate the question’s intent and elicit responses aligned with the intended interpretation. To look at these concepts more closely, IFPRI—an implementing…
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Webinar Round Up: Measuring food security and nutrition during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on food security and nutrition. Organizations and initiatives have shared webinars, blogs, and additional resources to help governments, donors, program implementors, and other stakeholders on how to monitor and assess how COVID-19 threatens food systems and nutritional status of populations. Below is a list of webinars on measuring food security and nutrition…
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Overview of new nutrition questions in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) core questionnaires
The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program just released the new DHS model questionnaires for round 8 (2018-2023). We previously shared on the blog how DHS and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) are main sources of nationally-representative maternal, newborn, child health, and nutrition data. The four DHS core questionnaires (household, woman, man, and biomarker) will be used globally, and…
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Updated guidance on measuring fortification coverage
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has released new guidance on measuring coverage of food fortification. The Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) provides standardized tools to collect, analyze and synthesize data on quality, coverage, and consumption of fortified foods in different countries and contexts. FACT also provides guidance on survey design and use in evaluation contexts. GAIN Briefing Paper…
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Beyond Definition: Attaching meaning to indicators
An interview with Jef Leroy, IFPRI A worker with the partner organization of Save the Children measures a child in the slums of Govandi, Mumbai, India. © 2016 Mayank Soni (Save the Children), Courtesy of Photoshare Stunting, or children assessed as too short for their age, has become a north star indicator for the nutrition community. Many advocates, policy makers,…
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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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Inspiration from the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) community: Core Questions on WASH for Household Surveys
© 2014 Faisal Azim, Courtesy of Photoshare World Water Day 2019’s theme of “Leaving no one behind” focuses on vulnerable populations—including women, children, refugees, and indigenous peoples—that lack access to safe water. This theme is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets on universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water (6.1) and adequate and equitable sanitation and…