A Poultry Value Chain Intervention Promoting Diversified Diets Has Limited Impact on Maternal and Child Diet Adequacy during the Lean Season in a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Soutenir l'Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l'Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l'Économie Rurale (SELEVER) is a nutrition- and gender-sensitive poultry value chain project designed and implemented by international nongovernmental organization Tanager, which consists of poultry market facilitation and behavior change activities aiming at increasing poultry production and improving diets without free inputs transfer.

Objectives: The study aimed at assessing the impact of SELEVER on diets of women and children during the lean season.

Methods: Within a cluster randomized controlled trial, 45 communes were assigned to 1 of 3 arms, including 1) SELEVER interventions, 2) SELEVER with an intensive hygiene and sanitation component (SELEVER + WASH), and 3) a control group without intervention.

Coherence for nutrition: insights from nutrition-relevant policies and programmes in Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

There is consensus that policy coherence is necessary for implementing effective and sustainable approaches to tackle malnutrition. We look at whether policies and programmes provide a coherent pathway to address nutrition priorities and if programmes are designed to deliver interventions aligned to the nutrition policy agenda in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. A systematic desk review was performed on nutrition-relevant policy and programme documents, obtained through grey literature searches and expert recommendations.

Program Impact Pathway Analysis Reveals Implementation Challenges that Limited the Incentive Value of Conditional Cash Transfers Aimed at Improving Maternal and Child Health Care Use in Mali.

Background: The program "Santé Nutritionnelle à Assise Communautaire à Kayes" (SNACK) in Mali aimed to improve child linear growth through a set of interventions targeted to mothers and children during pregnancy and up to the child's second birthday. Distributions of cash to mothers and/or lipid-based nutrient supplement to children 6-23 mo of age were added to SNACK to increase attendance at community health centers (CHCs).

Objectives: The aim of this study, which was embedded in a cluster-randomized impact evaluation of the program, was to assess the incentive value of the cash in relation to CHC attendance.