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Strengthening Human Resources for Nutrition

Despite the fact that there is global consensus on actions essential to address undernutrition, in many countries, the workforce needed to promote those actions is insufficient. SPRING works to strengthen human resources for nutrition with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of formally-trained professional and frontline workers in nutrition, as prioritized by USAID’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy 2014-15.

To do this, we—

  • help build consensus on the human resource competencies needed to implement nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive activities that can reduce undernutrition
  • develop tools for mapping the nutrition workforce within the health sector
  • create innovative training packages for the on-site training of health workers in nutrition practices
  • promote multisectoral “systems thinking” for the development of a nutrition workforce that is capable of acting and delivering services across health, agriculture, and other social sectors. 

For example, the Nutrition Workforce Mapping Toolkit helps countries understand which nutrition-specific actions are performed by health workers at different levels with the health care service-delivery system. Field tested in Haiti, the toolkit includes a user’s guide, data collection forms, data entry forms, and illustrative tables for reporting findings.

Future work in strengthening human resources for nutrition may include adapting the toolkit to map nutrition-sensitive activities undertaken by the workforce in other sectors.
 

News

SPRING organized field visits to a health facility and a community where participants received hands-on experience forming support groups and conducting group counseling
June 2014
SPRING/Nigeria is implementing a training cascade of the national Community Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Training Package, which focuses on three levels of expertise and ends with the formation of community support groups. The second trainin...
Women look at SPRING learning materials
March 2017
From March 27-30, 2017, over 300 of the world’s leading health experts from nearly 40 countries will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa for the Institutionalizing Community Health Conference (ICHC) 2017. USAID’s multi-sectoral nutrition project, S...
Participants carrying out a one-on-one counseling at Family Health Clinic Area 2, Abuja
May 2014
In 2013, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) of Nigeria led a process to produce training materials on community infant and young child feeding (CIYCF). The CIYCF package—which included counseling cards, a key message booklet, participant ...