New technical notes developed on nutrition in health and rural development in Côte d’Ivoire and Chad

In February 2016, a new technical note was compiled by GRET* and published by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) on nutrition in health and rural development. It is the thirteenth edition of a series of technical notes developed by AFD on areas of development which began in June 2015. The notes aim to share data and learn from actions between development actors to help AFD and others better understand the links between actors in development.

Issue 13 titled “Améliorer la prise en compte de la nutrition dans les projets de développement rural et de santé” (Improving the integration of nutrition in rural development and health projects), features efforts made by development actors in Côte d’Ivoire and Chad. The note reviews efforts across health and agriculture sectors.

The note recognises the importance of the thousand day window of opportunity from conception to two years of age and the multisectoral actions that are required to address the underlying causes of malnutrition – particularly across agriculture, food security, social protection, water and sanitation and education.

The note highlights three recommendations based on the learnings from Côte d’Ivoire and Chad:

1. Due to the nutritional status of children being of immediate but short term value, it is more effective to measure the impact of nutrition sensitive actions by focusing on intermediate factors such as knowledge, attitudes and practices of target groups.
2. For health and nutrition programmes, the technical note provides five guidelines for setting indicators.
3. For rural development programmes, the technical note provides four guidelines for nutrition sensitive indicators.

Download the technical note (Français)

*GRET (Professionnels du développement solidaire) is a French non-governmental organisation. Learn more at GRET

About Agence Française de Développement

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is the operator for France’s bilateral development finance mechanism. It is a public industrial and commercial institution with the status of specialized financial institution. Its action is in line with the policy set out in France’s Framework Document for Development Cooperation. AFD’s teams are based in Paris and Marseille and in a network of seventy agencies and representations in developing countries and the French overseas provinces.

Following the food crisis in 2008, AFD wished to gain a better understanding of the factors of food insecurity and security, both on the supply and demand side. The research conducted at AFD on the theme of food and nutritional security addresses the aspects of both supply and demand. Two nutrition related partnerships include:

• The Cost of Hunger: The Cost of Hunger estimates the prevalence of the phenomenon of malnutrition and its consequences, increase the visibility of the problem among citizens, attract the attention of policymakers and provide them with better information to allow public policies to be enhanced.It is conducted by the African Union Commission (AUC) and supported by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), NEPAD and World Food Program (WFP). In France, AFD is a partner with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (MAEDI).
• ECOWAS: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a key actor in regional integration and, as such, is receiving increasing support from AFD, particularly in the agriculture and food security sector. The Support Programme for Food and Nutrition Security in West Africa (PASANAO) will improve national and regional capacities to ensure food and nutrition security for the West African population.

Learn more about food and nutrition security at Agence Française de Développement