The document discusses India's nutrition challenges, focusing on the Poshan initiative which aims to accelerate nutrition action through data-driven insights at national, state, and district levels. It emphasizes the importance of understanding undernutrition, its determinants, and the effectiveness of existing programs while providing a framework for strategic interventions. With approximately 70,000 data points and various analysis methods, Poshan supports efforts to improve nutrition outcomes across numerous stakeholders.

1. Data and Evidence to Address India’s Nutrition
Challenge:
POSHAN’s State Policy Notes and District Nutrition Profiles
Purnima Menon, PhD
Senior Research Fellow & Theme Leader for South Asia Nutrition Programs
Program Director, POSHAN
Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division & South Asia Office, IFPRI
POSHAN is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

2. 2017: An unprecedented time for accelerating
nutrition actions in India
Bringing it
together
National Nutrition
Strategy, with targets
National Nutrition
Mission, with budget
Existing
landscape of
programs
State-level nutrition
commitment &
interest
New data on
nutrition
Improved nutrition
in 2022 (and looking
towards 2030)
How to turn
commitment
to impact?

3. POSHAN: a knowledge initiative focused on
data & evidence for nutrition
Problem
• Situation of
undernutrition and
determinants at
national and state level
• District-level
undernutrition and
determinants
Solutions
• Policies
• Programs
• Interventions

4. The many uses of data
• Harmonizing our
understanding of nutrition,
its determinants and
coverage of programs
• Diagnostic assessments to
support priority actions
– Geographic and programmatic
• Benchmarking for district,
state and national reviews
• Research
• And more!

5. The POSHAN team’s work with the
NFHS-4 summary data
State fact sheets
District fact sheets
~70,000 data
points
Topic-specific analyses:
coverage, stunting drivers, etc.
Trends report
Policy Notes
District Nutrition
Profiles
29
640
1Early to mid-2017
Data Notes
2

6. POSHAN’s Policy Notes on State Nutrition
Outcomes, Determinants and Interventions
• Overview of nutrition
at the state-level
• Highlights nutrition
challenges, progress
on determinants and
coverage
• Highlights district-
variability within state
• Many uses!

7. POSHAN’s District Nutrition Profiles: 640 districts
• Nutrition outcomes, immediate
and underlying determinants
and coverage
• Can be used in many ways and
by many actors!
– A diagnostic tool to understand
the determinants of nutritional
outcomes at a local level
– To pinpoint areas for strategic
actions/interventions
– To identify areas for deep-dive
analysis/research
– To cover nutrition in the local
media
– For advocacy
– And more…

8. POSHAN Knowledge Products
29 640

9. RESEARCH AND POLICY PRIORITIES

10. Priority topics for work with unit-level
NFHS-4 data
• Update trend analyses, coverage gap maps and other
analytics where indicator definitions need further
harmonization across survey rounds.
• In-depth topical analyses focused on:
– Decomposition analyses to understand the drivers of change in
several WHA target indicators including stunting, wasting,
anemia, and exclusive breastfeeding.
• India (overall), and for specific states.
– Determinants of nutrition outcomes (esp. wasting and stunting)
and the role of immediate and underlying determinants
– Nutrition coverage-focused analysis focused on inequity, factors
associated with current coverage and changes in coverage
– Other topics!

11. Use of data and knowledge products
• Harmonizing our understanding
of nutrition
– Critical because the people who
need to act are so many!
• Diagnostic assessments to
support priority actions
– Geographic and programmatic
• Benchmarking for local reviews
• “Baseline” for the National
Nutrition Strategy/Mission and
for state nutrition missions
• And more!