Organized by: International Food Policy Research Institute & UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia Abstract
As countries accelerate actions against malnutrition in all its forms, there is increasing awareness on the need for appropriate data to enable effective decision-making. Stakeholders are aware that systems must track the reach of interventions, shifts in drivers of malnutrition and ultimately, in nutrition outcomes. In a context of multiple data sources and multiple data users, however, challenges lie in understanding what data are needed, for what actions, how often, and by which stakeholders. In South Asia, recent experiences with nutrition information systems have highlighted that although policymakers are sensitized to this need for data to inform decisions, there is a great need to find the right fit between what is available versus what is truly needed to strengthen policy decisions, especially in a context of multiple forms of malnutrition. Our panel will feature examples of nutrition data and decision systems and highlight the critical need to find the right data fit.
