Vision: The Nutrition Working Group underscores the critical role of nutrition in maternal and child survival and health through dissemination of state-of-the-art information and approaches essential for quality nutrition programming.

2007 Working Group Highlights

• In September, Nutrition working group members presented on Nutrition Approaches: What, When, and How to Choose the Right One for Your Project. This session started with an example of an application of the Essential Nutrition Actions framework and then examined and compared the following nutrition approaches: the nutrition elements of C-IMCI, community-based growth promotion (e.g. AIN-C), PD/Hearth, and breastfeeding promotion (mother-to-mother support and baby-friendly communities). Panelists presented brief descriptions of each approach, examples of applications within child survival projects, and the associated successes and challenges. Following this meeting, the Nutrition working group held a technical advisory group meeting to determine next steps for creating a nutrition approach decision tool and to reach consensus on what the proposed tool will look like. Participants included CORE Group members, USAID staff, and staff from the Child Survival and Technical Support Project, FANTA and BASICS.

• Nancy Haselow of Helen Keller International presented on the CORE Group supported Diffusion of Innovation paper, Integration of Vitamin A Supplementation with Community-Directed Treatment of Onchocerciasis at USAID headquarters in Washington, DC. Community-directed treatment with ivermectin programs (CDTI) for control of onchocerciasis or river blindness are ongoing in 26 African countries, so integrating vitamin A supplementation into CDTI can potentially reach 11 million children and save 72,000 lives each year. After successful pilot projects in Cameroon and Nigeria, Helen Keller International has expanded its program throughout Nigeria and Cameroon, and now into Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire.

• Past highlights

Working Group Tools/Resources

• Technical Reference Materials on Nutrition, CSTS+/USAID, 2007.

• The Status of Programs and Research to Improve Complementary Feeding, Judiann McNulty, AED Center for Nutrition, 2006.

• Nutrition Resource Guide, compiled 2004.

• Positive Deviance/Hearth: A Resource Guide for Sustainably Rehabilitating Malnourished Children, CORE, 2003.

• Thin on the Ground: Questioning the Evidence Behind the World Bank-funded Community Nutrition Projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Uganda, Save the Children UK, 2003.

• Maternal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation: Dietary Guide,
  LINKAGES/AED/USAID and CORE, 2004.

• Meeting the Challenge to Improve Complementary Feeding, United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition, 2003.

• CORE Diffusion of Innovations Series: The Integration of Vitamin A Supplementation Into Community-Directed Treatment with Ivermectin: A Practical Guide for Africa, Helen Keller International, 2004

• PVO-NGO Experiences with Atención Integral de la Niñez en la Comunidad (AIN-C) in Honduras: Participatory Study, CORE IMCI and Nutrition Working Groups, 2003. Also available in Spanish.

• Zinc Deficiency

For additional resources, see Child Health + Development database.

Working Group Meetings and Reports

• Positive Deviance/Hearth regional training workshop reports.

• Nutrition Works! Measuring, Understanding, and Improving Nutritional Status. Workshop Report. CORE Group, Child Survival Technical Services (CSTS), Food Aid Management (FAM), and FANTA, 2001

• Implications Of Research Findings For Programs To Reduce Micronutrient Deficiencies USAID/MOST, 2003. (PowerPoint Presentation)

• Changing Breastfeeding Behavior at Community Level: LINKAGES Results in Bolivia, Ghana, and Madagascar, USAID/LINKAGES, 2003.

• Community-based Therapeutic Care (CTC): Managing Severe Acute Malnutrition in Emergencies and Development, report from a workshop sponsored by CORE's Nutrition Working Group, 2004.

Working Group Toolbox

• Working Group Member List

Useful Links

• La Leche League International

• Global Breastfeeding, Ted Greiner's informational site

• KPC Module 2: Breastfeeding and Infant and Young Child Nutrition, June 2006 Update, CSTS+/USAID.

• Food Security Network, USAID/Food for the Hungry

• Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA), USAID/AED (current)

• LINKAGES Project, USAID/AED Infant and Young Child Feeding Program (1996-2006)

• Micronutrient Fact Sheets, International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), 2003.

• MOST: the USAID Micronutrient Program

• PROFILES, nutrition advocacy information from AED

• SUSTAIN: Sharing U.S. Technology to Aid in the Improvement of Nutrition

• 5th Annual Report on the World Nutrition Situation, United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), 2004.

Photo: Yadira Pacheco/World Vision - Peru