Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN) Project: Impact Evaluation Report
IFPRI and Concern Worldwide, May 2016.
IFPRI and Concern Worldwide, May 2016.
Africa RISING Ethiopia, March 2016.
SPRING’s work in Mali aimed to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable women and children. The project promoted the growth and consumption of nutritious and diverse diets through community gardens convened by Farmer Field Schools, which combined training in nutrition-sensitive agricultural practices and the promotion of nutrition-specific behaviors. SPRING trained 5,500 famers and distributed 11,000 moringa, baobob, and papaya saplings.
Experts from across several sectors are meeting this week in Bangkok at the Asia regional Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy Global Learning & Evidence Exchange (MSN-GLEE) hosted by SPRING in partnership with USAID. This diverse group of USAID Mission staff, implementing partners, and academics will discuss multi-sectoral approaches to address malnutrition and plan for global action. The attendees represent programs in social and behavior change communications (SBCC), humanitarian response, agriculture, women’s empowerment, health, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
The SPRING/Mali program closed out on March 31, 2016, after 15 months of work in-country improving nutritional status of women and children, with special emphasis on building resilience in Mali’s Mopti region by treating and preventing undernutrition.
SPRING’s Food Security and Nutrition Director, Heather Danton, and SBCC Advisor, Phil Moses, traveled to Guinea in April to facilitate a week-long participatory workshop with partners from Winrock, Institut Superieur Agronomique et Vétérinaire (ISAV), and local NGOs. The workshop aimed to inform SPRING partners’ behavior change and agricultural extension work related to nutrition-sensitive agriculture. The workshop covered the agriculture-to-nutrition pathways and principles and other key concepts, such as criteria for selecting crops that address nutrient gaps in local diets.
SPRING/Mali’s goal is to improve the nutritional status of women of reproductive age, pregnant and lactating women, and children under age two in the Mopti region.
SPRING/Mali officially launched in December 2014 with the support of our lead implementing partner, Helen Keller International (HKI).