We also know that with the right treatment and prevention interventions, it is possible to protect women and children from malnutrition.

Simply providing food is not enough to truly reduce malnutrition in a sustainable manner. The causes of malnutrition vary depending on the type of malnutrition, so it is necessary to formulate and implement support measures using appropriate, scientifically proven methods.

To solve the problem of maternal and child malnutrition, it is necessary to implement a comprehensive combination of direct nutritional interventions and preventive activities through multi-sectoral collaboration and scale them up over a wide area.

What is direct nutrition intervention?

The direct nutritional interventions with proven effectiveness reported in the Lancet were 13 interventions that address the direct causes of malnutrition (breastfeeding, solid food feeding, hand washing, vitamin A, therapeutic zinc, multiple micronutrients, deworming, iron and folic acid administration, iron fortification of cereals, iodized salt, prevention and recovery of MAM, and treatment of SAM, etc.).

What is indirect nutritional intervention?

In addition to these direct interventions, multi-sector collaboration (indirect nutrition interventions) is necessary to address fundamental and long-term factors such as low income, agricultural production, water supply, and gender discrimination. Various indirect nutrition interventions are underway (home gardens to ensure food diversity, conditional cash transfers, improved stoves, livestock farming such as poultry farming, income generation programs, micronutrient enrichment breeding, food for work programs, etc.), but their effectiveness has not yet been fully demonstrated. For such indirect interventions to have a nutritional improvement effect, it is important that the project includes indicators of nutrition improvement. And ultimately, policy coherence and multi-sector collaboration are necessary for such measures.