What is nutrition-sensitive agriculture? Agriculture is nutrition-sensitive when it addresses the underlying causes of malnutrition. SPRING supports and promotes nutrition-sensitive agriculture with global evidence and guidance, design and monitoring tools, and lessons from field experience.
Over the course of two weeks, SPRING worked with KAWOLOR (prosperity and productivity in the Diola language) project staff to co-facilitate two trainings on nutrition-sensitive agriculture for new program staff in Kaffrine and Sedhiou, Senegal. Learn more about the SPRING Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Training resource package here.
The 2013 Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) for Nigeria found that infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices remain suboptimal in Nigeria. Among other findings, only 17.4% of children under six months old are exclusively breastfeed, and only 35.3% of mothers are continuing breastfeeding at two years. Child nutrition outcomes are often poor, with the rate of wasting among children under five years old at 18.0% and the rate of stunting at 36.8%.
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) defines global standards of optimal care for appropriate breastfeeding and mother-child bonding. Participating hospitals undergo a process of planning, training, and organizational and policy changes to achieve 10 steps.
A central part of SPRING’s work is to share learnings on how to implement effective nutrition programming. As more countries are moving ahead with efforts to end malnutrition globally, the need for large-scale implementation and impact has never been greater. While actors often know what kinds of interventions they need to conduct to combat malnutrition, these interventions are not always carried out with sufficient quality or scale to make the needed impact. That is why more and more implementers, researchers, and other partners are looking to implementation science for help. Dr.
In May 2017, SPRING organized a trip for staff from the Feed the Future-funded Entrepreneurial Agriculture for Improved Nutrition (EAIN) activity and SPRING/Sierra Leone to visit the SPRING/Guinea project in Faranah, Guinea to learn about the community media approaches used to promote improved maternal, infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN) and nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices, especially in households with pregnant women and young children.
At the ICTforAg 2017 conference, SPRING presented aspects of its social behavior change communication programming in Guinea.
From July 7-11, 2017, over 1,500 health economists and public health practitioners gathered in Boston to discuss new ideas for the economics of global health systems. Topics discussed included latest methods and debates on cost effectiveness analysis, healthcare financing, economic evaluation, and implications for health policy.
Ever since she has been using improved poultry production practices, Ndèye Khady has improved her family’s nutrition and her financial autonomy. She can now help her husband with household expenses. Before becoming a successful poultry raiser, Ndèye Khady participated in workshops on raising improved poultry which focused on how to take care of poultry, keep them healthy and clean, and prepare their food.
An expecting mother and her mother-in-law visit the clinic for prenatal care. Aissatou, the midwife, uses the visit as an opportunity to talk about the benefits of early initiation of breastfeeding in the first hour of life and the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. The woman and her mother-in-law learn that colostrum, also known as the first milk, can strengthen her baby’s immunity against disease.