The Government of Malawi committed to scaling up nutrition actions delivered through their Early Childhood Development (ECD) platform. This was informed by evidence from programs like the Nutrition Education and Empowerment Project-Impact Evaluation (NEEP-IE). NEEP-IE found the costs to deliver nutrition through childcare centers were lower than expected. It also estimated the positive impacts of reducing stunting and improving early learning. This evidence, along with government leadership across sectors, strong partnerships, and community engagement, led the government to work with the World Bank on a $60 million, 5-year investment program to further scale up nutrition.

1. CASE STUDY
How evidence informs decision-making:
Mary D’Alimonte, Senior Program Officer | Results for Development
IFPRI Policy Seminar | November 6th 2019
The Scale-Up of Nutrition Actions Through an
Early Childhood Development Platform in Malawi

2. 2
The Government of Malawi committed to scaling up
nutrition through their ECD platform
World Bank supported Investing in the Early Years for Growth and Productivity
in Malawi 2019-2024
Component 1 | $26 million
Community-based nutrition & early stimulation interventions
through Care Groups
Component 2 | $19 million
Center-based early learning, nutrition & health interventions
through CBCCs
Component 3 | $15 million
Multisectoral coordination, capacity, and system strengthening

3. 3
Baseline
eval
NEEP
program
delivered
Endline
eval
There’s been an evolution of research on nutrition-
sensitive actions through the ECD platform in Malawi
Government-led discussions on
potential scale up
Evidence generated or shared
Intervention delivered
Evaluation
$60 million investment
The Government of Malawi committed to
scaling-up nutrition actions delivered through
their ECD platform through the “Investing in
Early Years” program, supported by a World
Bank investment of $60 million over the next
five years (IDA/GFF).
Hilton Wrap
Around
PECD WALANEEP-IE NEEP-IE
Follow-up
eval

4. 4
What are the enabling factors that
informed and led to the Government’s
decision to scale-up?
CASE STUDY

5. 5
Four key enabling factors emerged
Strong base of evidence on impact and economic
rationale
Government leadership and multisectoral
collaboration at all stages
Strong partnerships between government and
implementing partners
Community engagement as a driving force

6. 6
A strong base of locally-generated evidence on impact and
economic rationale made a compelling case for scale-up
 Affordability: NEEP-IE enabled scale-up costs to be quantified, and found that
the costs to deliver nutrition actions through CBCCs were lower than expected
 Strong Return on Investment: the World Bank estimated that the Early Years
program would yield $2.4 for every $1 invested (even a less optimistic scenario
was positive)
 Impact: The Early Years investment was estimated to have strong impact and
reach across the 5-year period:
 47k fewer children <3y stunted
 70k children 3-4y to benefit from early learning interventions
 Over 31k PL adolescent girls to benefit from parenting education
 Wage increase and rate of return to school expected from reduction in stunting and
improved early childhood development

7. 7
Government leadership and multisectoral collaboration at all
stages meant ownership over the program and results
 Three sectors were involved
in NEEP-IE
 Consultative process at
national and local levels
gained buy-in throughout
and ownership over results
 Planning & design
 Intervention delivery
 Monitoring and evaluation

8. 8
Strong partnerships between government and
implementing partners underpin success of the program
 Local partners in Malawi delivered NEEP-IE, led data collection, and engaged
with government
 Save the Children delivered the ECD program across intervention and control
 Chancellor College brought research expertise in the Malawi context
 International partners provided technical assistance and capacity building
 IFPRI supported the development of rigorous research methods, working with Chancellor
College
 Translating evidence to policy makers: Local dissemination events and
presentations to the gvt on results opened conversations on how to integrate
emerging findings and recommendations into planning

9. 9
Community engagement was a driving force of the
integrated nutrition-agriculture intervention
 Success of NEEP-IE was based on community engagement:
 CBCCs are run by community volunteer caregivers
 Food donations are contributed by community members
 Community sensitization and engagement meetings throughout the NEEP-IE
intervention served as a platform for community and local leaders to ask
questions, raise concerns, provide feedback, etc
 Sustainability of community contributions is an important consideration for
scale-up
To fight malnutrition effectively, we must empower multisectoral citizens

10. 10
Thank you!
Augustin Flory
Managing Director
aflory@r4d.org
@AugustinFlory
Mary D’Alimonte
Sr. Program Officer
Mdalimonte@r4d.org
@Mary_DAlimonte
CONTACTUSFORMOREINFO
Kavya Ghai
Program Officer
kghai@r4d.org
@KavyaGhai
Susan Wang
Sr. Program Associate
swang@r4d.org
Thank you to all stakeholders consulted,
including Government of Malawi (MoGCDSW,
MoH DNHA, MoAIW), World Bank, Save the
Children, IFPRI, and Chancellor College.
Special thanks to Aulo Gelli, Aisha Twalibu,
and Amy Margolies for contributions and/or
review