Strategic information to improve nutrition in Barisal and Khulna Divisions in Bangladesh

Maternal and child under-nutrition is a direct and indirect cause of millions of childhood deaths and other adverse health outcomes annually. Undernourished children are more likely than well-nourished children to die before age five, and those that survive face long term negative impacts on mental and physical well-being. Best practices in nutrition are well documented by the 2008 Lancet Series, but in many countries, program implementation has fallen short of goals. Bangladesh faces important nutrition challenges, with 43% of children under-five suffering from chronic malnutrition according to the 2007 DHS. The SPRING Project has begun working to improve nutrition in Barisal and Khulna Divisions in southern Bangladesh and is undertaking rigorous strategic information (SI) activities to ensure that essential information is collected and effectively used by decision makers. The Project strategy aims to scale up high impact nutrition practices, using innovative interventions and multisectoral approaches across health, agriculture, and other sectors, focused on the window of opportunity from pregnancy to two years (the “first 1,000 days”). The interventions will use simple and innovative messaging, communication, and support through multiple health channels down to community level, as well as promoting improved nutrition through household food production. The authors will present baseline information on select nutrition indicators from the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS, carried out by IFPRI) and other population-based surveys, describe how these have influenced the SPRING integrated program approach, and discuss key monitoring indicators and SI strategies for tracking progress and using information to improve Project performance.