Multisectoral Nutrition Programming in Action

There has been renewed interest and effort in recent years to adopt a multisectoral approach to address malnutrition in many countries. The government of Uganda, with technical support from the World Bank and financial support from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), has been implementing a multisectoral nutrition project with strongcoordination in activities by several line ministries including Agriculture, Education, Health, and Local Government, to improve child and maternal nutrition. This quasi-experimental evaluation has been conducted to measure the impact of this project. The study finds impact on households' increased adoption of micronutrient-rich crops, improvement in household dietary diversity, reduced food insecurity, as well as improvement in caregivers' knowledge of better nutrition practices. These have resulted in improved child-feeding practices and reduced childhood stunting, wasting, and anemia among the households that directly participated in project activities. The study also finds evidence of some spillover effects on households from the intervention communities that were not direct participants. In terms of maternal health, fewer women in intervention districts are found to be anemic although there is no impact on their dietary diversity. The results indicate that multiple pathways-foodproduction, food habit, micronutrient supplementation, and health care services-have contributed simultaneously to the impact on nutritional outcomes of children and mothers. Since multiplicity of impact pathways is critical in arguing for a multisectoral approach, the project is found to be a case where this approach has been effective