Three cross-cutting themes also define our work: governance, inclusion and fragility. Here we describe why these are so important to our central research themes
Governance
Direct interventions can fail to scale up because of weak incentives, institutions and infrastructure.
Indirect interventions are often under-leveraged for nutrition because of failures in commitment and coordination.
The environment for nutrition is often disabling due to the invisibility of undernutrition and weak leadership from the state and civil society.
Inclusion
Asymmetries in power between men and women constrain women’s health and social status, and thus, their ability to care for children in their critical early years.
Empowering women is a key way of strengthening the nutrition impacts of direct and indirect interventions and creating a policy and action environment that is more enabling for nutrition.
Depending on context, power asymmetries along ethnic, caste and class lines are similarly important.
Fragile contexts
Fragile contexts are most vulnerable to adverse changes such as conflict, natural disasters, global economic crisis and climate change.
Enhanced vulnerability to such events generates the perfect storm of increased demand for nutrition services and the diminished ability to deliver them.
