An overview of the major food policy developments are outlined in the IFPRI Report launched this week and Stuart Gillespie has written chapter 7 on Nutrition Policy and Practice: Unpacking the Politics which links to theme 3 of Transform Nutrition’s research An enabling environment for nutrition.
Transforming leadership
How can we build commitment to, and accountability for, scaling up nutrition-relevant actions?
The Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index: An introduction
How can we create greater government and donor accountability for ending hunger and undernutrition? What is political commitment and how can we measure it?
On Wednesday 19 February 2014 Transform Nutrition held a seminar which presented the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) which ranks governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition. The index was created to provide greater transparency and public accountability by measuring what governments achieve, and where they fail, in addressing hunger and undernutrition. The HANCI research team introduced their metric and methods and present the data and findings from the project so far. You can listen to the seminar again here as it was livestreamed.
Seminar: The Politics of Reducing Malnutrition
On Wednesday 22nd January Transform Nutrition held a seminar at the Institute of Development Studies. Stuart Gillespie (IFPRI ) and Nick Nisbett (IDS) talked about how in recent years, political discourse on the challenge of undernutrition has increased markedly, leading to stated commitments on the part of many national governments, international organizations and donors. But they suggested that our understanding of what constitutes an “enabling environment for nutrition” is not well developed, and the nutrition research paradigm has routinely neglected the politics of reducing malnutrition. This presentation derived from work conducted for the fourth paper from the Lancet Nutrition Series, released in June 2013.
Why nutrition investment makes good economic sense
A new blog has just been published in the Guardian by Transform Nutrition Research Director John Hoddinott and Harold Alderman, IFPRI. The economic rationale for investing in undernutrition explains why providing each mother and child with a package of interventions worth $100 would reduce undernutrition by 20% and boost the economy in the process.
This is based on the paper by John Hoddinott et al The economic rationale for investing in stunting reduction published in Maternal and Child Nutrition (2013) 9
Tackling malnutrition in India: the role of higher education
Transform Nutrition partners Public Health Foundation of India have had their blog Tackling malnutrition in India: the role of higher education published in the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network to mark the launch of their new nutrition hub. The authors, Tanusree Paul and Shweta Khandelwal, discuss why India will struggle to improve its health profile without significant investments in training and research in public health nutrition.
Postgraduate education in nutrition in south Asia
A Transform Nutrition journal article is now out in the BMC Medical Education Postgraduate education in nutrition in south Asia: a huge mismatch between investments and needs. Led by researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India, this paper presents a regional situation analysis of master’s level academic initiatives in nutrition with a special focus on the type of programme we think is most likely to be helpful in addressing undernutrition at the population level: Public Health Nutrition (PHN). See also the Guardian blog.
Using Mobile Phones for Nutrition Surveillance: A Review of Evidence
Nutrition surveillance is expensive and logistically laborious and therefore often non-existent in resource-low countries. Surveillance systems are also constrained by time-consuming and error-prone paper-based data collection followed by manual data entry. Consequently, monitoring of nutrition outcomes in real time and timely response to nutritional crises is often impossible. This new evidence review Using Mobile Phones for Nutrition Surveillance by Inka Barnett and Jose V Gallegos, funded by Transform Nutrition, outlines how mobile phone technologies could help to address many of these challenges and offer potential benefits.
World Food Day. Are we making progress on reducing hunger?
To mark World Food Day – when people around the world come together to demand that their governments act to end global hunger – the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has published country scorecards based on findings from the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI).
Lawrence Haddad on the Global Hunger Index and the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index by Ids (Uk) on Mixcloud
Learning about Champions
Transform Nutrition are undertaking research to (a) identify individuals who have been or could be influential in contributing to policy changes that can effectively reduce undernutrition, and (b) explore the attributes and characteristics of these individuals. This informal paper Learning about Champions – Individuals Catalysing Social Change by Elise Wach and Sara Wolcott presents some of our thinking and preliminary findings to date.
Nutrition champions 2013 shortlist
The following 14 candidates have been shortlisted by our high level panel from 53 eligible nominations received. These champions reflect the broad experience and expertise that, together, will help to transform nutrition—working across countries and across sectors.
Alvaro Castillo Monge – Guatemala
Banda Ndiaye – Sahelian countries
Dr. Maria Andrade – Mozambique
