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Nutrition Innovation Laboratory:Research Agenda

Many collaborators:

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Nutrition Innovation Lab – over-arching questions

In what ways do investments in agriculture achieve significant measurable impacts in nutrition? Can impact pathways be empirically demonstrated?

How can we scale-up programs that incorporate such knowledge into cost-effective multi-sectoral actions?

How can implementation processes be enhanced to support both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive actions?

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In Nepal

21 randomly selected districts Collecting data on households’ agriculture,

health, nutrition (5,400 children/mothers) Linked to data on capacity and resources of

ministries and program implementers

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Identifying causes of malnutrition in Nepal

What factors linked to agriculture contributes to poor child growth?

What role for local diet in treating worst cases of malnutrition?

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Interviewing women in Nepal

Health seeking behaviors Sanitation/hygiene practiceKnowledge of food safetyDietary choices

Individual Household Community

Nutritional status, Dietary intake, Morbidity history

Socioeconomic status, Assets, Income, Expenditure

Agriculture, Nutrition, Health personnel

Receipt & use of maternal and child health services

Land Use, Agriculture production, Animal Ownership

Community infrastructure

Health, nutrition & child care knowledge

Program Participation, Agriculture/Health training and

inputs

Market prices for key foods

Women’s decision making Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Market prices for agricultural inputs

Data Domains for Nepal Community Surveys

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Programme and Policy Stages and Stakeholders

Source: Leroy J L , Menon P (2008) J. Nutr. 138:628-9

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What incentives promote inter-ministry collaboration?What constraints are faced in trying to work across sectors?What resources (human/institutional capacity) are missing? Is there common understanding of nutrition and agriculture problems across ministries?

Do weak institutions or constraints to collaboration filter down to affect nutrition outcomes on the ground?

Interviewing Policymakers in Nepal

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In Uganda

6 districts. Collecting panel data on households agriculture, health, and nutrition (5,400 children). Linked to data on capacity and resources of ministries and programs.

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Data collection in Uganda

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Timeline:

First rounds of data collected, cleaned Feeding back to national governments for their use in improving policy processes Second rounds data collection Fall 2013 Panels to be repeated over 7 years (if research extended to 2020).

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Nutrition Innovation Lab – Capacity Building

Individuals, Groups and Institutions

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Short-term training 275 students trained over the last 3 years. More than 100 of these trainees were female.

Students chosen based on agreed Nutrition Innovation Lab Student Training Criteria

Support given for curriculum development at medical schools in Nepal and public health universities in Uganda and Malawi.

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Longer-term training 15 Master’s degree students currently

studying public health, nutrition science, agricultural economics, food science

4 doctoral students studying nutrition and agriculture in the USA

1 Post-Doctoral position support in Uganda

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Degree Training Locations: In USA: Tufts University, Johns Hopkins University, Purdue

University, Harvard University, Tuskegee University Global: Makerere University (Uganda), St Johns Research Institute

(India), IFPRI (Kampala, Uganda), Bunda College (Malawi)

Short Term Training Summer Institutes in public health and nutrition (Harvard, Johns

Hopkins, Tribuvan University in Nepal) Original research experience gained, and presentations at national

symposiums (Cornell, Boston University, Tufts)

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