Publications
Stories of Change in Nutrition – a special issue
“This special issue offers all sides of the nutrition story, by shedding a light on how countries have scaled up their fight against malnutrition, thus inspiring others” Gerda Verburg Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Coordinator
“Stories, building on those presented in this issue, will help lead the way toward results at scale and the end of malnutrition.” Georgina Fekete, Director – Saving Lives, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), UK
To meet the growing demand from many countries for experiential learning about what works in Nutrition, Stories of Change sought to systematically assess and analyse drivers of change in six high-burden countries (Bangladesh, India (Odisha), Ethiopia, Nepal, Senegal, and Zambia) that have had some success in accelerating improvements in nutrition.
Bringing all of this work together for the first time a special Stories of Change issue of Global Food Security is now available, edited by Stuart Gillespie, Mara van den bold, Purnima Menon and Nicholas Nisbett. [Read more...]
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme
A new Transform Nutrition discussion paper is now out The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012. Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is a large-scale social protection intervention aimed at improving food security and stabilizing asset levels. In this paper, we examine the impact of the PSNP on children’s nutritional status over the period 2008–2012 and these findings, along with work by other researchers, have informed revisions to the PSNP.
A mobile health application to manage acute malnutrition
Community based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) is a proven high-impact and cost-effective approach in the treatment of acute malnutrition in developing countries. However, success is limited if treatment protocols are not followed, record keeping and data management is poor and reliable data is not available in time for decision makers.
There is strong evidence that mobile device based (mHealth) applications can improve frontline health workers’ ability to apply CMAM treatment protocols more effectively and to improve the provision of supply chain management. A new Transform Nutrition working paper is now available A mobile health application to manage acute malnutrition Lessons from developing and piloting the app in five countries which we hope will inform future mobile health projects.
A mobile app to manage acute malnutrition
A new Transform Nutrition research brief A mobile app to manage acute malnutrition is now available. In this brief programme staff in Niger, Chad, Mali, Kenya and Afghanistan discuss the challenges they faced adapting a mobile health app and rolling it out in some of the most remote, hard to reach health facilities in the world and make valuable recommendations for other mobile health application developments .
Social accountability initiatives in health and nutrition: lessons from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
In SouthAsia, social accountability practitioners have been addressing failures in the ‘standard’ health and nutrition model. What can we learn from them? New research report Social accountability initiatives in health and nutrition: lessons from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from Transform Nutrition and the Institute of Development Studies.
Challenging dominance: identity politics in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Programme, India
By Shilpa Deshpande, PhD Candidate, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
Ten years before I joined the ICDS as an anganwadi worker, my cousin mother-in-law used to work here. At that time, the division of the village population between anganwadi workers was such that lower caste households were served by my mother-in-law whereas only the higher caste households were served by Lata madam, this was her rule….so… my mother-in-law’s field area was scattered across the village. Then when I joined, Lata madam said that just like my mother-in-law I should be given the lower caste communities. I refused…. I said give me any part of the village but I want half and I want it along a continuous line then only will I be able to work. This led to a fight, which continued for several days.
Meena, Anganwadi worker [Read more...]
What factors influence community nutrition workers in performing their jobs? Preliminary findings from Bihar, India
by Aparna John, PhD candidate, Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex
Child undernutrition rates in India are among the highest in the world (Raykar et.al, 2015). Despite the decline in undernutrition indicators such as stunting (low height for age), underweight (low weight for age) and wasting (low weight for height), India is home to 40 million stunted and 17 million wasted children. The Government of India has invested in efforts to reduce childhood undernutrition and improve maternal and child health through one of its flagship programmes — the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme. ICDS, the world’s largest community nutrition programme, is delivered by 1.34 million village based female workers, Anganwadi workers (AWWs). [Read more...]
Bangladesh country brief
This Bangladesh country brief is a summary of findings from our Stories of Change in Nutrition study.
There have been remarkable improvements in welfare and human development in Bangladesh in recent years which has helped with improved nutrition for many. However many millions of children in Bangladesh still grow up stunted because of poor nutrition and levels of acute nutrition deficiencies remain high. What still needs to be done?
