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Nutrition Checklist

This checklist page is to help us in understanding the Hunger Project’s (THPs) perspective, approach, activities, and interventions in our nutrition programs across three continents. The summaries are intended to assist in identifying issues that should be factored into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of our nutrition programmes.

Introduction

An estimated 870 million people in the world, or one in eight, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012 (FAO, 2012). Almost all these people live in developing countries of global south.  THP believes that nutrition problems (whether malnutrition or under nutrition) pose serious health problems. Poor nutrition during the 1,000 day window causes irreparable harm. For instance, an outcome of malnutrition, stunting, alone affects 165 million children under 5 years of age around the world (UNICEF, 2013). Malnutrition is the largest single contributor to disease, according to the UN’s Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), and under-nutrition among others, affects school performance, leads to a lower income as an adult, depletes immunity to diseases and causes women to give birth to low birth-weight babies (WFP, 2014).

Intervention Methodology

Nutrition is one of THP’s priority areas and is advocating for the integration nutrition interventions in Post-2015 goals and many other related initiatives as part of its 2014 goals. THB believes that three critical elements: mobilizing people at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents and forging partnerships with local government, when combined, empower people to make rapid progress in overcoming hunger and poverty. Thus, our intervention projects involve these same three elements.

Nutrition Intervention Types and Definitions (Adopted from The Lancet)

Nutrition-specific interventions and programmes: are interventions or programmes that address the immediate determinants of fetal and child nutrition and development—adequate food and nutrient intake, feeding, care-giving and parenting practices, and low burden of infectious diseases.

Examples:

Adolescent, preconception, and maternal health and nutrition

  • Maternal dietary or micro-nutrient supplementation
  • Promotion of optimum breastfeeding
  • Complementary feeding and responsive feeding practices and stimulation
  • Dietary supplementation
  • Diversification and micro-nutrient supplementation or fortification for children
  • Treatment of severe acute malnutrition
  • Disease prevention and management
  • Nutrition in emergencies

Nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: are interventions or programmes that address the underlying determinants of fetal and child nutrition and development— food security; adequate care-giving resources at the maternal, household and community levels; and access to health services and a safe and hygienic environment—and incorporate specific nutrition goals and actions.

Examples:

  • Agriculture and food security
  • Social safety nets
  • Early child development
  • Maternal mental health
  • Women empowerment
  • Child protection
  • Schooling
  • Water, sanitation and hygiene
  • Health and family planning services

THP’s Nutrition Interventions in its project countries include the following:

  • Utilizes community epicenters to provide family planning services and nutritional monitoring services
  • Builds the capacity of rural farmers through sharing new technologies and agricultural inputs
  • Supports activities like epicenter farming, food banks, food bank supplements (agricultural input revolving fund); increasing household production; input supply, training, and demonstration/trial which contribute to increased access to sufficient food, improved diets, greater nutritional variety.
  • Empowers and supports farmers with training and materials to increase and diversify their food production
  • Assists poor communities build food banks at the epicenters which provide food grains; thus protecting them from sudden hunger in case of crises such as drought and famine
  • Collaborates with host countries’ ministry of health to process and package nutritional supplements at our epicenters. The product improved the health of children in the communities while providing an additional source of income for the epicenter as well.
  • Partners with government to provide education on child and maternal nutrition at THP epicenters

THP draws its nutrition intervention from the Copenhagen Consensus (CC) which highlights nutrition as one of the highest-leverage investments in the world. The Nobel Laureate Panel at the CC suggested three solutions to combat hunger:

  • 1. Micro-nutrient supplementation,
  • 2. Micro-nutrient fortification, and
  • 3. Community nutrition promotion

Reference:

Copenhagen Consensus, 2014. “Guide to giving”. Retrieved on 3 April 2014 from http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/guide-giving/combating-hunger

FAO, 1996. World Food Summit: Rome Declaration on World Food Security. Retrieved on January 31, 2014  from        http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.HTM

FAO, 2012. The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security. Retrieved on 19 February 2014 fromhttp://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3434e/i3434e.pdf

The Lancet, 2014. “Nutrition-sensitive Interventions and Programmes: How Can They Help Accelerate Progress in Improving Maternal and Child Nutrition?”

UNICEF,2013. “Improving Child Nutrition: The achievable imperative for global progress.”

USAID, 2013. Nutrition Strategy: 2014-2025 Draft. Retrieved on 19 February 2014 fromhttp://agrilinks.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/Nutrition%20Strategy%20Draft%20for%20Public%20Comment-12.20.13.pdf

WHO, 2014. “Global Health Targets 2015”. Retrieved on 3 April 2014 from http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/nutrition_globaltargets2025/en/