This series of country briefs report on key maternal and child nutrition indicators, progress towards reaching the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets, and current implementation of recommended policies and plans.

Describes the Alive & Thrive initiative by outlining how and why we began, what we’ve achieved and how we’ve evolved today. Also illustrates the four component framework that we use to scale up nutrition.

This brief describes the Alive & Thrive (A&T) approach and four component framework for scaling up nutrition in Burkina Faso.

Recent scientific evidence has shown that breastfeeding is critical to a child’s health and development. Yet, in 2012, the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding (consuming nothing but breastmilk) in the first 6 months of life was only 37%.

The overall nutritional status of children in Nigeria has slightly improved over the last decade; nevertheless, the country still has among the world’s highest child mortality rates and some of the lowest rates of recommended IYCF practices.

Explores the pathways by which early and exclusive breastfeeding reduces newborn deaths and discusses program implications.