The opportunity

The first 1,000 days are when nutrition has the greatest impact on a child’s future health and potential.

The first 1,000 days – the time between conception and a child’s second birthday – is a critical window for physical and neurological development strongly influenced by nutrition, which impacts a child’s future health and potential. Effective implementation of maternal, infant and young child nutrition interventions during this period can lead to improved health outcomes which include decreased maternal anaemia, incidence of low birthweight and preterm delivery, and prevalence of stunting.  

However, many nutrition interventions across the first 1,000 days are not consistently implemented or executed as intended. Frontline health workers face many challenges to adopting and delivering these interventions with quality and efficiency at all touchpoints across the full 1,000 days. One of these gaps exists in the area of the nutrition counselling provided by healthcare providers to beneficiaries. This project intentionally focuses on improving nutrition services with an emphasis on delivering high-quality interpersonal nutrition counselling (IPNC).

Our solution

Undertaking implementation research to improve the quality of health and nutrition services for pregnant women and children under two.

Calcium

Calcium

Folate/Folic Acid

Folate/Folic Acid

Iron

Iron

Zinc

Zinc

Nutrition International will conduct research to identify ways to effectively implement proven nutrition interventions in real-life settings. Through this research, challenges that prevent the effective implementation of nutrition interventions, especially IPNC, will be identified and solutions to these issues will be developed and tested. A costing study will also be part of this research to model cost-effectiveness and further inform potential scale-up. We are also strengthening government health systems components that will build an enabling environment for the FLWs to effectively provide nutrition services including IPNC.  

Through this project we will: 

  • Implement an enhanced IPNC strategy and training for healthcare workers 
  • Implement a behaviour change intervention strategy targeted at both health service providers and beneficiaries 
  • Strengthen the supply chain for nutrition commodities 
  • Enhance supportive supervision for frontline service providers 
  • Strengthen monitor and reporting mechanisms 

The impact

Improving the health and potential of women and children living in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

This implementation research project aims to inform policy and program decision-making related to maternal and child nutrition services across the 1,000 days within Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and beyond. Through this research, Nutrition International aims to develop a model for improved quality of nutrition services and formulate a package of tools to support integrating quality nutrition services and counselling into the health system.