Day 1 session 1 (2015) intro

Transforming Nutrition: Ideas, Policy and Outcomes

Convened by the research consortium Transform Nutrition, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).  

With special thanks to Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) for providing full scholarships for four of our participants. 

Facilitated by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 

Summer SchoolJuly 13-18, 2015

Introduction

Transforming Nutrition: Ideas, Policy and Outcomes

Lawrence Haddad, IFPRIPurnima Menon, IFPRINick Nisbett, IDS

“Nearly 4 million people die prematurely in India every year from malnutrition and related problems. That’s more than the number who perished during the entire 

Bengal famine.” 

Amartya Sen and Jean DrezeHunger and Public Action

1989 

Transforming Nutrition: Ideas, Policy and Outcomes

Transforming Nutrition: Ideas, Policy and Outcomes

Purpose of course

• To integrate ideas about nutrition from cause to consequence to intervention to building commitment  -- and back again! 

• To help you marshal the latest evidence  better to accelerate malnutrition reduction

• For all of us to learn from each other, together

• To inspire and energise ourselves in the fight against malnutrition

Introductions of participantswho are we and why are we here?

what do we hope to get out of the course?and what is our biggest worry?

Definitions of Malnutrition

Nutrition has a History of Neglect 

Guatemalan children, significantly lower than median height for age of a healthy population

(My underlining)

The more things change the more they stay the same

10

Ten Reasons for Weak Commitment to Nutrition

Heaver, Richard. 2005. Strengthening Country Commitment to Human Development: Lessons from Nutrition. Washington, DC : World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/7310

1. Malnutrition is usually invisible to malnourished families and communities.2. Families and governments do not recognise the human and economic costs of 

malnutrition.3. Governments may not know there are faster interventions for combating malnutrition 

than economic growth and poverty reduction or that nutrition programmes are affordable.

4. Because there are multiple organisational stakeholders in nutrition, it can fall between the cracks.

5. There is not always a consensus about how to intervene against malnutrition.6. Adequate nutrition is seldom treated as a human right.7. Malnourished people have little voice.8. Some politicians and managers do not care whether programmes are well 

implemented.9. Governments sometimes claim that they are investing in improving nutrition when 

the programmes they are financing have little effect on it10. There is a vicious circle: lack of commitment to nutrition leads to underinvestment in 

nutrition, which leads to weak impact, which reinforces lack of commitment since governments believe nutrition programmes do not work.

Big shifts in the Nutrition Landscape: More needed

2008• Stewardship of the nutrition system 

dysfunctional and deeply fragmented 

• New evidence base introduced in the 2008 Lancet Series, identified critical 1,000 day window 

• Pinpointed a package of highly effective interventions for reducing undernutrition 

• Proposed a group of “high burden” countries as priorities for increased investment

2015• Nutrition significantly elevated on 

the global agenda• Launch & Renewal of the Scaling Up 

Nutrition (SUN) Movement in 2010: a major step toward improved stewardship of nutrition architecture

• Nearly every major development agency has published a policy document on undernutrition

• Donors have increased ODA to basic nutrition from $140m in 2005 more to $940m in 2014

• Nutrition For Growth Conference, ICN2, Global Nutrition Report (www.globalnutritionreport.org) 

Day Session Topic Day Session TopicMonday 1 Intro + Objectives Thursday 1 Enabling environment 2

2 Definitions and Distribution 2 Group work 3

lunch lunch

3 Causes 3 Evaluating what works and why

4 Consequences 4 Group work 4

dinner Welcome dinner dinner Dinner

Tuesday 1 What works-Nutrition Specific 1 Friday 1 Presentation of group work

2 What works-Nutrition Specific 2 2 Presentation of group work

lunch lunch

3 Group work 1 3 Finding common threads and close

4 What works-Nutrition Sensitive 1 4 Certificates & Awards

dinner Dinner

Course Outline 

Weds 1 What works-Nutrition Sensitive 2

2 Group work 2

lunch

3 Enabling environment 1

4 2 country case studies

Anticipated biases in this course

• Tried to cover disciplinary bases (economics, socioeconomics, political sciences, epidemiology, nutrition sciences, public health)

• Emergency nutrition is underrepresented• Strong focus on quantitative data• IFPRI/Lancet/World Bank/LSHTM/IDS centric• We are not practitioners

Ground Rules