POSHAN, LANSA & TRANSFORM NUTRITION: Latest Developments in IFPRI’s Nutrition Portfolio

Meeting of Nutrition Coalition Members, November 4th, 2011

Suneetha KadiyalaInternational Food Policy Research InstituteNew Delhi

Economic Structure

Nutrition specific direct

interventionsPOSHAN, TN

Nutrition sensitive indirect

interventionsLANSA, TN

Political and Ideological Frameworks

Institutions

CHILD NUTRITION

Immediate causes

Basic causes

Access to Food

Maternal & Child Care

Water, Sanitation & Health services

Underlying causes

Environment, Technology & People

Food/Nutrient Intake Health

Conceptual Framework

Source: Adapted from UNICEF 1990 and Ruel 2008

New Initiatives

Partnerships and Opportunities for Strengthening and Harmonizing Actions on Nutrition in India (POSHAN)

Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA)

Transform Nutrition

POSHANIndia

BMGF Supported 4 Year Grant

Goal and Objectives of POSHAN

POSHAN’s goal is to improve and support policy and program decisions and actions to accelerate reductions in maternal and child under nutrition in India, through an inclusive process of evidence synthesis, knowledge generation, and knowledge mobilization.

OBJECTIVES1.Analyze direct and indirect nutrition-relevant interventions to generate knowledge on optimal approaches to address major bottlenecks to improve maternal and child nutrition outcomes in India2.Mobilize evidence-based and actionable knowledge to inform policy formulation and support program planning for nutrition at the national level and in 3-4 key states.

POSHAN Theory of Change

Generating Knowledge: Proposed Activities

Synthesis of program experiences that can be replicated

Field assessment of 3-4 program innovations judged to be the most transferable with the highest potential for impact

Experimental studies of 2-3 core operational innovations to rigorously pressure-test them in current implementation systems.

Knowledge Mobilization: Proposed Activities

Engaging with Government and state level policy makers/ core strategic partners in early consultations, program reviews, field assessments, and field experiments

Convene knowledge mobilization and learning community for stakeholders implementing or evaluating actions to accelerate the reductions in undernutrition

Establish and maintain a knowledge management system to bring together, in one virtual space, all critical learning about program successes and failures in India

Initiating Partners

International Food Policy Research Institute (Lead)

Public Health Foundation of India Knowledge Mobilization Institute of Development Studies

Others potential partners Government at the national and State levels (Bihar, M.P) NGOs National & International Research Institutes

LANSAIndia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan

DFID Supported 6 Year Grant

Core Research Questions

1) How can agriculture and food systems become more nutrition sensitive?

2) How enabling is the wider context in linking nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems to other determinants of nutrition status?

3) What is the scope for the embedding of nutrition innovations within specific agricultural interventions?

Cross-cutting issues: innovation, gender, fragility

Partners

M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India (Lead)

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) BRAC International, Bangladesh Collective for Social Science Research (CSSR),

Pakistan Institute for Development Studies (IDS), UK Leverhulme Centre for Integrated Research on

Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), UK

Transform NutritionIndia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya

(Nepal, Vietnam, Nigeria, Zimbabwe)

DFID Supported 6 Year Grant

Core Research Questions

1) How can direct nutrition-specific interventions targeted to the “window of opportunity” be appropriately prioritized, implemented, scaled up and sustained in different settings?

2) How can indirect interventions (social protection, agriculture, and women’s empowerment) have a greater impact on improving nutrition?

3) How can an enabling environment be promoted, and existing and enhanced political and economic resources be used most effectively to improve nutrition?

Cross-cutting themes: governance, inclusion, fragility

15

Partners

International Food Policy Research Institute (Lead)

International Centre for Research on Diarrhoeal Disease, Bangladesh (ICIDDR,B)

Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) Save the Children (SC) University of Nairobi (UoN)

Thank You