Report Summaries

Improving maternal nutrition:

The UNICEF acceleration planThis is a summary of the following paper: UNICEF (2024)
Improving maternal nutrition: An acceleration plan to prevent
malnutrition and anaemia during pregnancy (2024–2025).
https://www.unicef.org/media/153581/file/Maternal%20
nutrition%20acceleration%20plan.pdf

Appropriate nutrition is fundamental
to the health and well-being of women and girls. Well-nourished women
have better health and safer pregnancies. They also positively influence the survival,
growth, and development of their children, influencing nutrition and health status throughout
life and into the next generation.

“The evidence is clear: insufficientnutrient intake before and during
pregnancy and while breastfeeding
has debilitating and even deadly
consequences for children.”
Recently, progress has been made to advancethe rights of adolescent girls and women. However, many still struggle to access the nutritious diets, essential nutrition services, and positive nutrition and care practices needed to live full andhealthy lives. There has been almost no change
to the high rates of underweight and anaemia inadolescent girls and women for the past twodecades. In the countries most affected by theglobal food and nutrition crisis, acute malnutrition in mothers has risen by 25% since 2020.
To see improvements in the nutritional statusof pregnant adolescent girls and women, nutrition policies and programmes must confront
the inequalities that create, reinforce, and perpetuate the immediate nutritional problems.
UNICEF and partners have launched a
US$320 million acceleration plan to improvematernal nutrition. This aims to prevent anaemia and malnutrition in pregnant women overthe next two years (2024–2025), across 16 priority countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Madagascar,Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,
the Philippines, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka,and Tanzania.
If fully funded, the plan will reach a total of
16 million pregnant women with a package offive essential nutrition services: nutrition infor-

Making food systems work forcomplementary feeding
This is a summary of the following paper: Micronutrient Forum (2024)
Making food systems work for complementary feeding in low- andmiddle-income countries. https://micronutrientforum.org/wpcontent/uploads/2024/02/Making-food-systems-work-forcomplementary-feeding-in-LMICs-Meeting-report_FINAL.pdf

While breastfeeding provides a critical foundation, it alone cannot
meet the high nutrient needs ofchildren aged beyond six months.
Nearly half of all children globally are not fed
enough of the right complementary foods at theright time. Limited national supply, high levels offood loss and waste, high prices relative to household incomes, low appeal, and safety concerns areleaving nutritious, complementary foods for children aged 6–23 months unavailable, inaccessible,unaffordable, and unappealing. These barriers not
only jeopardise children’s immediate health but
can also have a profound impact on long-term
health and well-being.
In response to this issue, the Micronutrient
Forum convened an expert meeting in December 2023 to discuss the question: “how can we
make food systems work for complementaryfeeding?” The experts made recommendations
in four core areas that currently limit the availability, affordability, accessibility, and appeal ofsafe and nutritious complementary foods: 1)
knowledge and evidence gaps; 2) limited lo-40

cal capability and capacity; 3) implementation
barriers due to business constraints and supply
chain inefficiencies; and 4) an unfavourable enabling environment. These recommendations
serve as a roadmap for action to transform foodsystems and ensure access to nutritious complementary foods for young children.
The recommendations cover a wide range oftopics, including reducing food loss and waste,using native, underutilised, and biofortified
crops, and adopting complementary food composition standards. Adopting a “research and development as a service” model was also highlighted
to support small- and medium-sized enterprises.
This model, typically offered by suppliers, aims tolessen research and development expenses and facilitate market entry by providing technical assistance and capacity strengthening. Developing an
investment pipeline for these enterprises to produce safe, high-quality complementary foods, isalso necessary. To realise this vision, a systems approach must be taken by governments, food producers, suppliers, businesses, researchers, investors, and technical agencies.

FIELD EXCHANGE ISSUE 73, July 2024 www.ennonline.net/fex

mation, education, and counselling; healthy weightgain monitoring; multiple micronutrient supplementation; deworming prophylaxis and malaria control (according to context); and nutritional screening and referral for supplementation withbalanced energy-protein if needed. The essential
package of services will largely be delivered via antenatal care, with strong links to community systems. The five essential nutrition services includedin the acceleration plan are not new, but they have
not yet been implemented as a high-quality package
and successfully taken to scale.
UNICEF and partners aim to support the implementation of the essential package of services by:strengthening advocacy and policies; improving thedelivery of maternal health and nutrition services;increasing the capacity of service providers; increasing the supplies of essential commodities; and harnessing data and generating evidence and learningin both development settings (implementation research) and humanitarian settings (emergency preparedness and response).
Through this acceleration plan, UNICEF aims
to harness the current momentum and commit toworking closely with national governments and partners in scaling up the package of services across these16 priority countries. These efforts will amplify women’s rights and voices at the country and community
levels through the delivery of proven services, while
documenting experiences and sharing learning on
how to take these services to scale most effectively.

Importantly, bold initiatives are already underway. The World Health Organization and UNICEF have establishedthe Global Complementary Feeding Collective to foster global and regional cooperation. Technical organisations are providing support to improve the technicaland business capacity of small- and medium-sized enterprises, enabling local foodproduction and fostering sustainable business models. For example, in Cambodia andZambia local initiatives are in place to produce
fish powder, which can be used in homemade
porridges. Egg production hubs have also been
established in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and India, as another example.
Ultimately, transforming food systems
to deliver safe and nutritious complementary foods through sustainable business models
requires collaborative efforts and innovative
solutions from both public and private sector
actors. Networks and coalitions are set up tocreate an ecosystem that supports operational
efficiencies, growth, innovation, and sustainability for small- and medium-sized enterprises. The Scaling Up Nutrition Business Networkand the Alliance for Inclusive and Nutritious
Food Processing are examples of this. Local
food system actors also need access to patient
capital and innovative financing mechanismsthat will ‘de-risk’ their own investments.
The detailed findings of this report are beyond the scope of this summary. However, we
encourage readers to explore the 51-page reportand case studies found within.