SPRING Around the Web
SPRING shares knowledge and experience to spread innovation and support the scale up of high-impact nutrition practices and policies. We do this through our publications, events, and multi-media but also through blogs shared with the international development community. Below are links to SPRING's diverse blog posts across the web, also available by technical area and country.
Putting Budget Data to Work for Nutrition

This articles highlight's SPRING"s nutrition budget analysis workshowing that how data can be used to identify and coordinate nutrition across sectors, advocate for more nutrition funding and track and manage use of funds.
Read the postQuestioning the Link between Income and Adequate Diets: How to Make Myth a Reality?

This article explores SPRING's experience testing the assumption that household incomes increase, nutrition – or, at least, diet – improves, right? After all, food is a basic requirement and logic suggests that food-insecure households will put extra income towards additional food, resulting in better diets. At least, that’s the theory. In practice, however, the link is not that straightforward and when higher incomes do lead to better diets, it is most often not right away.
Read the postSix Key Resources to Check Out From SPRING’s Agriculture-Nutrition Team

Reflecting on a truly impressive body of work, SPRING's Lisa Kowalski highlights six resources that stand out as most useful for helping practitioners and program designers to put nutrition-sensitive agriculture into action.
Read the postCall to Action on Adolescent Nutrition Demands Better Data

Adolescence is a critical period of biological and psychosocial growth and development that marks a unique stage between childhood and adulthood. The nutrition of the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents, aged 10-19, will have a profound impact on their current and future health and well-being—as well as on future generations. IFPRI's Sunny Kim, Deanna Olney and Marie Ruel make the case to join the Call to Action on Adolescent Nutrition
Read the postIYCF Image Bank: Better Visuals for Your Social and Behavior Change Programming

Images communicate behavior concepts more efficiently than audio or text alone. They invite viewers to imagine themselves as the subject in the pictures; when individuals identify with what they see in the images, they are more likely to adopt improved practices. Learn about the process of developing the IYCF Image Bank from this blog co-aothored by SPRING's SBCC and KM teams.
Read the postAgriculture and Nutrition Can’t Be Kept in Separate Silos, Say Experts

To achieve global targets for reducing malnutrition, experts in the food and agricultural sectors need to pay more attention to how their work impacts nutrition in general. That is one of the key takeaways of USAID’s Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) project, which has been working for the last seven years to bring together the disparate worlds of agriculture and nutrition. This intereview with Heather Danton, the director of food security and nutrition at SPRING, includes this and other insights gained over the course of project implmentation.
Read the postSocial Behavior Change for Nutrition: Six Years of Global Programming

SPRING's experience over the past five years of implementing multi-sectoral nutrition programming across the globe illustrates that having clear goals of social and behavior change in its programming helps engage communities and partners alike. This editorial synthesizes that experience and presents a framework to guide thinking around nutrition behavior change.
Read the postRethinking What Is Driving Rising Anemia Rates

Iron supplementation has been the traditional response, but experts say there is a need for a wider range of coordinated interventions. This article includes perspectives from SPRING's nutrition experts on multi-sectoral approaches to effectively address anemial prevention and control.
Read the postSMARTE Solutions for Value Chains: Telling Stories Through Community Video to Improve Agriculture

In Guinea, SPRING teamed up with Feed the Future’s Strengthening Market-Led Agriculture Research, Technology and Education (SMARTE) to increase the nutrition-sensitivity of an agricultural value chain using storytelling via community video. Locally produced and featuring actors from the community, these videos — which present engaging and entertaining mini-stories about families — are a powerful vehicle for change.
Read the postThe Infant and Young Child Feeding Image Bank

For low-literacy populations with limited access to mass-media, communicating about improved nutrition practices is often achieved through drawings that demonstrate behaviors that will contribute to improved nutrition outcomes. SPRING partnered with UNICEF to build an online repository of high-quality IYCF images that can be downloaded and modified to help save time and money. In this post, SPRING web guru Daniel Cothran describes how SPRING built the IYCF Image Bank with limited resources in the open-source Drupal platform with a small team and budget.
Read the postMore Than Just Irrigation: The Role of Water in Agriculture and Nutrition

When thinking about water and agriculture, irrigation and erosion are two highly visible and inextricable links. Although the connections among water, agriculture and nutrition might not be as easy to see, they’re every bit as important. This blog discusses SPRING's work to link WASH, agriculture, and nutrition with a specific focus on our work in Ghana
Read the postDesign Matters in Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

How does one design an agricultural project — or “activity” in USAID language — for nutrition? When pursuing improved nutrition, do you give up part of the economic growth objective, or can you tackle both at the same time without sacrificing the other? And how might you pursue the latter? This blog explores observations made from SPRING's work with with three development activities in Zambia, namely that both food security and market-led approaches are necessary and appropriate for nutrition-sensitive agriculture.
Read the postNew e-Learning Course from SPRING Bridges Nutrition and Agriculture Programming

To help agriculture implementers become more nutrition-sensitive, SPRING and USAID have developed a new online training course to learn more about the links between agriculture and nutrition and to know how to use evidence-based behavior change methods in nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices. This blog is a conversation with Alyssa Klein, Food Security and Nutrition Specialist with SPRING, and Sally Abbott, Nutrition Advisor with USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, about the development and use of the new course.
Read the postSharing the Load: Promoting Gender Champions for Nutrition in Senegal

When it comes to household responsibilities, heavy workloads can have negative effects on a woman’s access to income, food security, and the health and nutritional status of their families. This blog delves into ways SPRING is encouraging couples in Senegal to be gender champions by sharing the burden.
Read the postEncouraging Fathers to Become Active Participants in Improved Nutrition

This blog encourages father figures, in addition to mothers, to participate in discussions related to gender and agriculture to support equal participation in household decisions and improve nutrition outcomes. One way SPRING has promoted involving fathers is through community video in Niger.
Read the postSafe Groundnuts the Main Ingredient of Better Nutrition in Ghana

SPRING was in the "sweet spot" of a public-private partnership with USAID and Hershey’s, providing critical contracting support to procure specialized nut-roasting equipment and training local farmers to produce safe groundnuts, the primary ingredient in food supplements for Ghanaian school children.
Read the postCultivating Equal Partners in Agriculture and Nutrition

To tackle malnutrition in Bangladesh, SPRING implemented its farmer nutrition school (FNS) approach which focused particularly on enrolling pregnant and lactating women. Over time, staff noticed that women who participated in FNS seemed more confident, more in control of their family’s health and diet, and better linked to the government extension system. This blog discusses how SPRING adapted the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to measure the change in women’s empowerment.
Read the postEmpowering Women Through Better Agriculture and Improved Yields: Farmer Field Schools in Ghana Benefit Women Groundnut Growers

In northern Ghana, SPRING’s farmer field schools promoted women’s empowerment by training female farmers in good agronomic practices that increase groundnut yields and make them safer to consume. These improved practices help women grow enough groundnuts to both feed their families and sell the excess in the market for a profit.
Read the postNurturing Care: Bringing Early Childhood Development and Nutrition Together for Greater Impact

The linkages between early childhood development and nutrition have traditionally been siloed, sometimes even impeding one another's efforts. This blog makes the case for greater integration with five recommendations that can be put into practice now.
Read the postThese Micronutrients Have a Mighty Impact

Micronutrient powders can deliver vital micronutrients to communities with limited access to diverse foods. This blog describes SPRING’s efforts to understand the effectiveness of the different ways micronutrient powders are distributed through the story of Rahimu, an 8-month-old child from rural Uganda.
Read the postFeeding Khodia's Dream: Partnerships Strengthen Nutrition in Senegal

This photo essay describes the power of partnerships through Khodia, who received nutrition training to strengthen her community health work. For example, after receiving training on hygiene, she now spends her time counseling families on good hygiene practices and less time treating children for diarrhea.
Read the postA Multisector Approach to Monitoring Planned and Actual Nutrition Spending

SPRING developed a methodology to analyze planned and actual spending for nutrition from a government perspective, including system diagnostics to inform future monitoring. It involves nine steps over three phases (collection, validation and analysis). This blog describes how the method was tested and refined in pilots in Uganda and Nepal.
Read the postCommunity Video in the Sahel: From Pilot to Scale

SPRING adapted and assessed the effectiveness and scalability of community video to promote nutrition and hygiene in Niger and Burkina Faso. This article describes SPRING’s rapid scale-up that spread to 248 villages in Niger and 90 villages in Burkina Faso via collaborations with local partners, concept testing for adaptation to local contexts, and capacity building of video production hubs.
Read the postHow Can Agricultural Information Systems be Nutrition-Sensitive?

SPRING examined existing communication platforms in Northern Ghana to better understand how nutrition-sensitive messaging can be integrated into agricultural information systems. This review found that these agriculture information systems offer several opportunities to improve their impact on nutrition, many of which may apply to other contexts.
Read the postMulti-Sectoral Coordination and Collaboration for Improved Nutrition: Lessons Learned From Three Feed the Future Countries

SPRING has worked with countries around the world to fill the evidence gap on how to address malnutrition. The blog features a video on our coordination and collaboration work with six opportunities for different groups and organizations to work together to improve nutrition.
Read the postIt Takes a Village: Improving Nutrition through Community Health Workers

Malnutrition continues to be one of the greatest challenges to development worldwide, but community health workers are in a unique position to help. This blog, developed as part of a the 2017 Institutionalizing Community Health Conference, describes how SPRING is helping to raise the status and quality of nutrition services provided by community health workers.
Read the postClean Water: An Indispensible Ingredient for Nutrition

SPRING is working in the Feed the Future zone of influence in 15 districts in Ghana’s Northern and Upper East regions to improve nutrition through a multifaceted strategy that focuses on 1,000-day households. This blog describes SPRING’s WASH 1000 strategy, an integral component of our 1,000 day Household Approach.
Read the postBridging the Gaps in Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

Agriculture is nutrition-sensitive when it tackles issues at the root of malnutrition rather than just food production. SPRING’s Director of Food Security and Nutrition describes our efforts to strengthen understanding and best practices for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, first understanding how effective programs work and then sharing what we have learned.
Read the postMainstreaming Gender to Improve Nutrition Outcomes

For International Women’s Day 2017, SPRING’s Gender Advisor in Senegal, Daba Ndione Beye, shared her perspective on the importance of mainstreaming gender in development programs to improve nutrition outcomes.
Read the postA Focus on Nutrition Improves Community Health in Senegal

This blog highlights SPRING’s rapid launch of our short-term, high-impact program in three regions of Senegal to improve child and maternal nutrition. Through the story of Thiane Dramé, readers learn targeted interventions are increasing food production and providing a more diverse diet for their families.
Read the postFrom Policy to Practice: What Do We Know About Policy’s Influence on Planning and Financing for Nutrition?

The principal investigator of SPRING’s Pathways to Better Nutrition case studies in Nepal and Uganda discusses insights gained from these two longitudinal studies that examine how budgets for multisectoral nutrition action plan are actually funded.
Read the postNew Findings on Iron Deficiency Anemia : Experts Weigh In

New findings from a HarvestPlus-commissioned review challenge the prevailing assumption that 50% of anemia is attributable to iron deficiency. Experts discussed how these findings should be interpreted and acted upon through the SPRING-supported Accelerated Reduction Effort on Anaemia community of practice. This blog captures key takeaways.
Read the postLinking Agriculture and Nutrition: SPRING's December Summary of New Research and Tools

Each month, SPRING’s Agriculture and Nutrition Resource Review updates its audience on the many developments happening the the fast-moving field to help programs integrate current evidence. This edition includes information about innovations in behavior change, crop choices, and investments in nutrition interventions.
Read the postFive Ways Agriculture Can Improve Nutrition

Agriculture plays a critical role in providing nutritious food and in addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition. Feed the Future’s investments in SPRING have revealed several opportunities for agriculture to contribute to improved nutrition, especially for those most at risk. This blog and infographic outline five actions that can be taken now.
Read the postLinking Agriculture and Nutrition: SPRING’s November 2016 Summary of New Research and Tools

SPRING’s Agriculture and Nutrition Resource Review keeps readers abreast of the many developments in a fast-moving field to help them integrate current evidence into their programs. Our November 2016 edition included information about adapting agriculture platforms for nutrition, global strategies to reduce hunger, and reflections on the future of food security. This blog post introduces new readers to the publication.
Read the postChild Nutrition beyond the 1,000-Day Window of Opportunity

Though SPRING’s efforts have largely focused on the first 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, our experience makes it clear that efforts must expand to include women—especially adolescent girls—before they become pregnant.
Read the postClimate Smart Agriculture is Nutrition Smart: 5 Links Between Climate Change and Nutrition

Climate change affects nutrition because it impacts the availability and access to nutritious food, dietary diversity, income, and so much more. In efforts to make agriculture climate smart, don’t miss opportunities to also make it nutrition-smart.
Read the postLooking Back on Our First 1,000 Days

Part two of a two part journey with SPRING’s Kristina Granger. On her son’s second birthday, she looks back on their first 1,000 days and her experience with breastfeeding, pumping, and complementary feeding. As a social behavior change communications practitioner, her personal experience gave Kristina even more respect for the mothers and communities SPRING works with as they overcome barriers to make breastfeeding a reality for their children.
Read the postThe 1,000-Day Journey: A First-Time Mom’s Perspective on Breastfeeding Promotion and Behavior Change

Part one of a two-part journey with new mom, SPRING’s Kristina Granger, as she explores her experiences with breastfeeding in relation to her work in social and behavior change communications for maternal and infant nutrition.
Read the postRani’s School of Nutrition

This photo blog follows Rani, a health worker in Bangladesh whose training from a SPRING farmer nutrition school has given her the knowledge to advise her neighbors, especially pregnant women and mothers, on how to improve nutrition intake. Rani also shows people in the village how to use tippy taps to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others.
Read the postMaking it to 5: A Nutritionist's Perspective on a Significant Milestone

SPRING’s Carrie Malgarejo reflects on her son’s fifth birthday and how her career as a nutritionist on global health projects underscores just how much it takes for a child to reach the 5-year milestone birthday.
Read the postBreastfeeding for a Brighter Future: How One of Our First Acts of Sharing Builds Healthier Babies, Stronger Families and Sustainable Communities

SPRING celebrates World Breastfeeding Week with mothers around the world by taking a look at the important role of breastfeeding in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Read the postWomen's Progress toward Parity, through Better Nutrition

On International Women’s Day 2016, SPRING pledges for parity, especially in the area of nutrition. SPRING’s work unites health, agriculture, and economic development to empower women and make real progress towards ending malnutrition.
Read the postThe Making of Nutrition Stars

This photo blog follows Basanti Majhi, a farmer, a wife, and a mother living near India’s eastern coast, where she spends her days working in the fields and caring for her family. After adopting improved nutrition and hygiene practices that she learned from watching a SPRING community video, Basanti was featured in a video about breastfeeding and is now a nutrition star in her community.
Read the postBuilding a Global Conversation to Address Multi-Sectoral Approaches to Anemia Reduction

SPRING partnered with the UNSCN and WHO to create a moderated anemia community of practice that provides a space for conversation and builds consensus for anemia reduction at global, regional, and national levels; and encourages commitment to reaching the Global Nutrition 2025 targets.
Read the postReflections on 30 Years of Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

Heather Danton, lead of SPRING’s Agriculture to Nutrition team, reflects on her 30 years of experience in nutrition-sensitive agriculture. She discusses how solving complex problems on nutrition and agriculture can also save lives.
Read the postProcess Learning: Field Testing a Social and Behaviour Change Guide for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

A field test of a behavior change guide for nutrition-sensitive agriculture helped identify areas that could be improved, and promoted discussion and a better understanding of terms and approaches among development experts in different sectors who are faced with the challenges inherent to integrated programming.
Read the postPositioning and Re-Positioning for Success in Breastfeeding

In an era that seems to value “innovation” and “game-changers,” we ignore proven practices, approaches, and solutions at our peril. SPRING Project Director Carolyn Hart makes the case for the unique role breastfeeding plays in good nutrition in the first 1,000 days and consequently, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Read the postCoffee, Green Beans and Handicrafts: How Nutrition-Sensitive Value-Chains can Improve Health in Guatemala

How does bulk drying coffee beans relate to better nutrition? SPRING conducted qualitative research with USAID/Guatemala to learn how this and other agricultural market development activities could increase the nutrition-sensitivity of specific commodity value chains.
Read the postScaling Up Nutrition

GAIN, USAID, and SPRING facilitated an online discussion on shaping the future of nutrition social and behavior change communication at scale. SPRING’s Ashley Aakesson speaks about the multiple models of scaling, discussing trade-offs, costs, and the decision to use a certain social and behavior change communication intervention.
Read the postImproving Nutrition, One Latrine at a Time: WASH 1,000 Strategy in Ghana Takes Hold

SPRING’s WASH 1,000 strategy is a multifaceted approach that stresses the importance of key household behaviors during the first 1,000 days, from a mother’s pregnancy to the child’s second birthday. Working with country partners to facilitate discussions about the importance of good hygiene encouraged communities in the northern and upper eastern regions of Ghana to take on the challenge of building latrines and improving sanitation in their communities.
Read the postTracking Nutrition Funding Isn't Easy, but the Payoff Could be Better Outcomes

Like any national challenge, sufficient, sustained funding is needed to address undernutrition. This blog looks at how SPRING is tracking nutrition-specific and -sensitive activities over three fiscal years in Uganda and Nepal to explore if and how policies translate into changes in nutrition funding commitments in each country.
Read the postInspiring the Next Generation of Nutrition Leaders in Uganda

Trained nutritionists with strong technical and leadership skills that can improve nutrition behaviors in Uganda are scarce. SPRING takes a Thanksgiving look at how Nutrition Trainee interns in Uganda use social and behavior change communications to inspire good nutrition in their communities.
Read the postAddressing the What, the Who and the Why Behind Recent Reductions in Anemia in Uganda—A Multisectoral Effort to Find Out

In the 10 years prior to 2011, anemia rates decreased by surprising numbers for women and children in Uganda, but sustaining the momentum requires understanding the reasons why anemia rates decreased. In 2012, SPRING worked with the Government of Uganda to review demographic health survey analyses, revealing multiple factors for the impressive decline. SPRING discusses the outcomes and the steps forward.
Read the postThe Power of HCES to Inform Evidence-Based Nutrition Interventions and Policies

Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys—a collective term for multi-purpose household surveys—are an inexpensive and more readily available alternative for tracking food consumption patterns than individual dietary surveys such as 24‐hour recall and observed-weighed food records. SPRING discusses the method, benefits, and opportunities.
Read the postWebinar to Highlight How Extension, Technology, and Behavior Change Combine to Improve Agriculture and Nutrition

SPRING partnered with Digital Green to test the feasibility of adapting a video-based approach to promote high-impact maternal, infant, and young child nutrition maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and hygiene practices. A webinar on December 17, 2013 examined this methodology.
Read the postJSI @APHA 2013: Local Research, Global Impact

SPRING looked at the performance of iron folic acid supplementation systems through antenatal care in twenty-two countries using demographic health survey data. Country-level analysis provides the detail and context that local program implementers and policymakers need, while the global comparisons of data allow for better understanding of how iron folic acid supplementation programs are being implemented across these different contexts.
Read the postInspired by World Food Day with a Success Story from Bhola, Bangladesh

World Food Day is a reminder that we need to continue developing new strategies to ensure sustainable food systems. SPRING’s farmer field schools in Bangladesh are one example. For stay-at-home-mother, Rajopa, joining a farmer field schools gave her training on nutrition and hygiene and helped increase her access to a diverse selection of nutrient-rich vegetables, fish, and poultry to help feed her four young children.
Read the postNew Application of Demographic and Health Survey in Nutrition Modeling

SPRING conducted a modeling exercise to investigate the linkages between nutrition and non-communicable disease, relying on demographic heath survey data to first link family planning use and inter-pregnancy intervals, and then linking inter-pregnancy intervals with reported birth weight. Success of the exercise encourages the adaptation of analytical methods to create new ways to use existing data.
Read the postA Global Celebration of Child Nutrition in Nigeria

SPRING participated in World Breastfeeding Week 2013 by providing technical support to the Government of Nigeria as they launch a National Infant and Young Child Feeding campaign to improve community health worker training.
Read the postMoving from Agriculture and Nutrition to Farming and Food

With training and support from Feed the Future through USAID, Sambo, a farmer in Senegal, has leveraged his farm production to improve nutrition in his household. But linking agriculture to nutrition outcomes is not an easy feat. SPRING partnered with USAID to host a series of Agriculture and Nutrition Global Learning and Evidence Exchanges that provide a forum for USAID Mission staff, implementing partners, and host country governments to strengthen the ways they work across organizations and in the field to maximize the impact of Feed the Future investments.
Read the postSPRING to Better Nutrition across the Globe

SPRING reviews several ongoing activities to help program planners and policy makers better conceptualize what the correlation between maternal undernutrition, as well as in-utero infant and young child undernutrition, is with the risk of developing nutrition related non-communicable diseases later in life.
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