Childhood nutrition
The UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) awarded Oxford Policy Management a contract to undertake a feasibility study on the local production of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and/or Ready to Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) in Zambia. The feasibility study has two specific milestones: initial analysis of the Zambian RUTF and RUSF market… Read more
Most of the evidence concentrates on the nutrition of vulnerable groups – mainly very young children and CBA. The little data available on nutritional status of the elderly is for those living in residential homes. For men, published evidence relates to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and is therefore not given here. The report includes… Read more
Child undernutrition is one of the most devastating realities in many parts of the world. Globally in 2015, 159 million children below the age of five years were too short for their age (stunted) and 50 million were too thin for their height (wasted). Inadequate nutrition in early childhood can have lifelong consequences, including poor… Read more
This report is a summary of an extensive evaluation undertaken by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) of its response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It focuses on Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives — countries that had the most serious damage and received 84 per cent of UNICEF tsunami country-level funds. The evaluation mainly… Read more
Dr Stephanie Bengtsson and Dr Jo Ailwood have been involved in a teacher training research project in Zimbabwe since 2013. This talk looks at how the concept of care can be used to integrate early childhood services. A mapping of age phases across sectors is presented and the meaning of the word ‘care’ is discussed…. Read more
This briefing outlines findings from operations research to support the refinement of the infant and young child feeding (IYCF) strategy implemented by the Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN) programme. Key research findings include: The concept of food groups, the unique benefits of feeding foods from each food group and the classification of foods into specific food groups is… Read more
This helpdesk provides a rapid analysis on the existing evidence related to effective behaviour change interventions. It has a particular focus on where interventions are related to hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, gender based violence, indoor air pollution, family planning adoption, unsafe sex, motor vehicle driving. The geographic focus is Malawi, but where necessary it draws… Read more
In March 2016, researchers from the University of Jos were awarded a grant for a new research project to study long-term outcomes following treatment in a Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme in Jigawa State. The grant was awarded by ORIE (Operations Research and Impact Evaluation). Every year about one million children under five years of age die in Nigeria. Malnutrition contributes to… Read more
In January 2016, a team led by Dr Garba M. Ashir of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital received a grant for new research to understand the demand-side barriers which prevent mothers with young children from accessing nutritional services. The grant was awarded by Operations Research and Impact Evaluation (ORIE), a DFID-funded consortium of UK and Nigerian organisations. The project will generate valuable research findings… Read more
South Asia has long been synonymous with unusually high rates of undernutrition. In the past decade, however, Nepal has arguably achieved the fastest recorded decline in child stunting in the world and has done so in the midst of civil war and post-conflict political instability. Given recent interest in reducing undernutrition – particularly the role… Read more
This paper investigates young people’s and their caregivers’ experiences of food insecurity, diet and eating practices in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India. It also provides original child-focused evidence on perceptions of government food programmes such as the Midday Meal Scheme and the Targeted Public Distribution System. The paper analyses three rounds of longitudinal qualitative… Read more