In 2022, Alive & Thrive expanded its activities in Nigeria. These nutrition profiles provide stakeholders a snapshot of the situation in each of the states where Alive & Thrive is now working with government and other partners to improve MIYCAN outcomes. The indicators show that much work needs to be done to achieve the 2025 World Health Assembly nutrition targets.

A second cohort of nutrition leaders in West and Central Africa has completed the blended learning program aimed at building their capacity to implement programs to improve rates of exclusive breastfeeding using social and behavior change. The course was developed by Alive & Thrive in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO, and is part of the Stronger With Breastmilk Only regional initiative.

Seeking to support efforts in West and Central Africa to accelerate implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, Alive & Thrive’s East Asia Pacific regional office shared lessons learned from the Centers of Excellence for Breastfeeding (COE) approach during a webinar in August.

Alive & Thrive will undertake a comprehensive effort to institutionalize its extensive knowledge and lessons learned on maternal, infant, young child and adolescent nutrition (MIYCAN) thanks to a new grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The new funding complements the initiative’s continuing work at the country level in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Nigeria, and the East Asia Pacific region.

There is wide recognition of the importance of integrating maternal nutrition interventions in antenatal care (ANC) to improve maternal and child health. In Ethiopia, despite the availability of national maternal nutrition guidelines and promising maternal nutrition interventions, key maternal nutrition indicators still lag. According to the Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS 2016), 23.6% of women (15-49 years), 29.1% of pregnant women, and 28.6% of lactating women are anemic. Only 5.1% of women took 90+ iron-folic acid (IFA) tablets during pregnancy.

In India, despite national policy guidance based on global antenatal care (ANC) guidelines, some of the most critical maternal nutrition services do not reach the majority of pregnant women. In Uttar Pradesh, only 42 percent of pregnant women completed four ANC visits, and 10 percent consumed the recommended 180 tablets of IFA during pregnancy (IIPS, 2019-21).