Briefing Papers Number 14, February 2012 | Page 15

Ansem Ansari/Photoshare

initially on strategic and management capacities
(human and organizational) from the national to
frontline levels.92 Effective country strategies and
implementation to scale up depend on coordinated
joint planning of initiatives. Ideally this will
include coordinated planning with clear technical
guidance and assistance, high-level advocacy,
and innovative partnerships to increase the
effectiveness of existing initiatives and programs.
It is important to support national leadership and
the participation of a wide range of stakeholders
so that nutrition efforts have broad ownership and
shared responsibility for results.
3. Strengthened Systems for Nutrition:
Appropriate Human Resources for
Nutrition
A grandmother helps attend to her granddaughter’s infant in Bangladesh. This baby
Insufficient numbers of trained healthcare
was the first born in the MINIMAT study cohort in Matlab, Bangladesh. Four thousand
providers in developing countries—particularly
mothers were followed through their pregnancies with targeted nutritional interventions
to prevent low birth weight.
in rural areas—make it more difficult to carry out
effective nutrition programs. Providers, community
extension workers, and volunteers alike need
Scaling up to achieve the MDGs requires decision-making
sufficient training, resources, and time to be able to commit
to integrated service delivery. Practitioners need skills to and advocacy based on evidence. Obtaining the needed highassess, counsel, and educate individuals as well as skills to quality data on nutrition and food security, in turn, requires
treat and manage moderate and severe acute malnutrition additional resources. The capacity of local governments and
and maternal anemia. Countries need technical assistance civil societies will need to be significantly strengthened so
and resources to prepare and carry out practical plans to that they can use nutrition and food security data to deliver
develop the needed human resources for nutrition. Plans services effectively and integrate local data into the national
should emphasize recruitment, hiring, training, retention, system. For example, the contribution of SAM to child morand human resource management. Plans should include tality rates is not always clearly recognized because in some
options for hiring more staff qualified in nutrition or for health data systems, it is not listed separately as a cause of
integrating nutrition into the existing training curricula of death. Ensuring that all deaths from SAM are reported as
such would focus attention on the scope of the problem.
clinical and community service providers.
Support also needs to be given to countries to improve Strong nutrition monitoring systems will need to be develrepresentation of nutrition stakeholders at the national and oped. They should have appropriate indicators, data gathersub-national levels, elevating their voices and participation ing, and information systems that use their results to inform
in decision-making. National nutrition needs can be more ac- nutrition and food security interventions.
curately mapped out and costs estimated using the results of
the WHO Landscape Analysis and recommendations from
consultations with stakeholders.

4. National Guidance, Data Use, and Monitoring
Systems for Nutrition
Increased investment in country nutrition information
systems, integration of nutrition indicators, and improved
coordination of technical nutrition guidance are needed for
successful efforts to scale up. Planning itself requires resources to develop and disseminate national policy guidelines,
protocols, and appropriate training and tools for health facilities and communities to offer effective nutrition assessment,
counseling, education, and support.
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