Briefing Papers Number 20, November 2012 | Page 14

Table 5  A Variety of Definitions of Nutrition-Sensitive and Nutrition-Specific Interventions (continued)
Nutrition-Sensitive Nutrition-Specific

Scaling Up
Nutrition (SUN)
Movement

Nutrition-sensitive development seeks to promote adequate nutrition as the goal of
national development policies in agriculture, food security, social protection, health,
and education programs.100
Nutrition-sensitive development demands that nutritional outcomes become key
goals of national development policies. This involves ensuring optimal nutritional
impact of all agriculture and food security programs through research, action, and
close monitoring; ensuring optimal nutritional impact of social protection programs
and targeting of safety nets for vulnerable communities; ensuring appropriate
nutritional focus within maternal, newborn, and child health programs; incorporating
nutritional considerations within child and adult education; and enhancing the
nutritional impact of poverty reduction, employment generation, rural development,
water and sanitation, and emergency response programs (SUN 2011).

Supports The Lancet’s direct, nutritionspecific interventions, such as promoting
good nutritional practices, increasing intake of
vitamins and minerals through supplementation
and fortification, and therapeutic feeding for
severe malnutrition.

United States
Government

Nutrition-sensitive…. strengthening the nutrition component in an existing health
or agriculture led program.101

Nutrition (focused)….is a new program with
specific goals to improve nutrition.102

United Nations
Children’s Fund
(UNICEF)

Nutrition-sensitive interventions: linked to other sectors as social policies, health,
and food security.103 The United Nations definition of nutrition-sensitive is “policies
that enable all people to enjoy good nutrition.” Sustainable, nutrition-sensitive
agriculture and food security p