Linking agriculture and nutrition education to improve infant and young child feeding: Lessons for future programmes

Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with purposively selected project stakeholders (53 in Cambodia, 170 in Malawi), including government staff from the agriculture and health sectors. Results highlight that adoption of improved IYCF practices was facilitated by participation in nutrition education and practical cooking sessions, and supportive family and community structures. Barriers faced by families and caregivers were identified, such as women's workload and lack of access to high quality foods, namely fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and animal source foods. Implementation challenges regarding coordination of cross‐sectoral targeting strategies and capacities of extension services to sustain community‐based IYCF nutrition education need to be addressed to improve programme effectiveness and impact. The project lessons from Cambodia and Malawi are useful for integrated agriculture‐IYCF nutrition education programmes to help ensure better young child nutrition outcomes.
Source: Maternal and Child Nutrition - Category: Nutrition Authors: Tags: SUPPLEMENT ARTICLE Source Type: research