A presentation given by Stuart Gillespie at the Transform Nutrition regional meeting 'Using evidence to inspire action in East Africa' Nairobi, Kenya 8 June 2017.

1. Stuart Gillespie, IFPRI
www.transformnutrition.org

3. IMPROVING CHILD NUTRITION: The achievable imperative for global progress. UNICEF 2013
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Most stunting is in South
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

4. Consequences of malnutrition
• Child death and illness
– 25,000 under-fives die every day (11,000 due to malnutrition
ie 45%)
• By far the biggest driver of the global burden of disease
• Cognitive impairment
• Lost income-earning potential
• Annual GDP losses in Africa 11%
• Intergenerational transmission of stunting
• Double burden of over- and undernutrition
• Global epidemic of non-communicable disease (NCDs)

5. Lancet 2013 conceptual framework
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6. Focus countries
• Kenya
• Ethiopia
• India
• Bangladesh

7. Transform Nutrition Consortium Partners
International Food Policy Research Institute
Institute for Development Studies
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease
Research, Bangladesh
Public Health Foundation of India
Save the Children

8. Transform Nutrition’sTheory of Change
Developing and sustaining
a robust enabling
environment
Improved capacity to
maximise nutrition sensitivity
of indirect interventions
Actionable evidence
on scaling direct
interventions
PURPOSE
Unlock puzzles to
transform thinking and
action on nutrition
Strong network
of nutrition
champions
Increased profile of
nutrition in public
policy through
communication
processes
Accelerated reduction in
undernutrition
Nutrition moved higher up
development agenda
Transformed thinking
and action for
undernutrition reduction
OUTCOMES
OUTPUTS

9. Core ResearchThemes
1. Transforming delivery
– How to choose the best interventions and delivery strategies to scale
up nutrition?
1. Transforming agriculture and social protection
– How to maximize the impacts of investments in agriculture and social
protection on nutrition?
1. Transforming leadership, commitment and
accountability
– How can we build commitment to, and accountability for, scaling up
nutrition-relevant actions?

11. Objectives
• To better understand the drivers, pathways and
challenges that influence political commitment, policy
and program coherence and the implementation of
nutrition-relevant actions, as experienced by various
stakeholders.
• To foster an experiential learning process based on
real-time documentation of change, and sharing ideas
across national boundaries.
• Inform…..and inspire!

12. Where?
Africa:
•Senegal
•Ethiopia
•Zambia
South Asia:
•Bangladesh
•Nepal
•Odisha (India)

13. Meta-protocol
Change (2000-present) Challenge (present-2025)
Commitment How has commitment for
nutrition, in its broadest sense,
been generated?
How will commitment be sustained
in the face of current or likely
future challenges or threats?
Coherence How has policy and program
coherence been developed and
ensured – both horizontally
(across sectors) and vertically
(national to community levels)
What current and future challenges
are faced in ensuring policy and
program coherence
Community How have the lives of nutritionally
vulnerable communities changed
in the last 15 years?
What do communities perceive as
the most significant challenges to
progress in nutritional and health
well-being?

14. Methods
• Literature review
• Landscaping of policies and programs
• Stakeholder mapping/networks analysis
• Quantitative analyses of drivers of change
• Mixed-methods analysis of change using an array of
tools (“SoCTool Pool”)
• Qualitative analyses:
• Key informant interviews (incl community-level)
• Focus group discussions
• Stakeholder consultations/learning events

15. What have we learned?
1. Commitment
2. Coherence
3. Accountability
4. Data, evidence
5. Capacity
6. Leadership
7. Financing

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