Accelerating nutrition improvements: best practices in scaling up nutrition actions

Overview

Accelerating Nutrition Improvements in sub-Saharan Africa (ANI) was implemented in 11 countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in collaboration with the World Health Organization and local partners, and was supported by Global Affairs Canada (formerly the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development).

ANI supported countries to improve nutrition surveillance activities through strengthening health information systems, and to scale up nutrition interventions. In the period 2013-2016, all 11 countries implemented nutrition surveillance activities to strengthen health information systems. Three countries (Ethiopia, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania) received additional support to scale up nutrition interventions, with a focus on the district level. Activities for scaling up took place within country-led programmes and strategies and within existing systems in order to avoid duplication and ensure sustainability. All three countries focused on essential maternal, infant and young child nutrition actions during the 1000 days that span conception to the child’s second birthday.

This package presents a description of best practices emanating from the scaling-up work, and describes the processes, techniques and approaches used. These practices were chosen because they led to sustainable results or because they exemplify important values in the processes of planning and implementation. The nine best practices described in this package are:

• Making the case for addressing anaemia among adolescent girls in Ethiopia
• Strengthening technical skills of health workers improved the quality and coverage of nutrition services in Ethiopia
• Community outreach strategies reinforced health sector delivery of essential nutrition actions in Ethiopia
• Comprehensive information allowed Uganda to develop nutritious, locally available and affordable recipes for complementary feeding
• Adopting and adapting international guidelines ensured an evidence-informed approach to preventing and controlling malnutrition in all its forms in Uganda
• Participatory district assessments brought stakeholders together around evidence-informed nutrition actions in Uganda
• Stronger nutrition surveillance within the health system ensured better detection and management of child undernutrition in the United Republic of Tanzania
• Scaling up social and behaviour change communication at community level improved maternal, infant and young child feeding practices in the United republic of Tanzania
• District-level investments for nutrition increased in the United Republic of Tanzania when capacity was developed for multisectoral planning and budgeting