WI-HER leads the development of new resources on gender-sensitive social and behavior change to improve nutritional outcomes

Press Release on June 29, 2015

WI-HER LLC is proud to announce the release of new materials completed in partnership with the CORE Group through the USAID Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Micro Grant Program. WI-HER led the development of the Enhancing Nutrition and Food Security during the First 1,000 Days through Gender-sensitive Social and Behavior Change: A Technical Resource Guide and complementary Technical Brief. These materials are designed to build the capacity of development practitioners working in food security to design, implement, and evaluate gender-sensitive social and behavior change (SBC) programming in order to improve nutritional outcomes for mothers and children under two within the context of nutrition and food security projects. They do this by providing an overview, rationale, critical actions, best practices, resources, and tools for integrating gender-sensitive SBC into project activities. In addition, WI-HER also led a webinar to share an overview of the methodology used to conduct this work and present research findings, with a focus on sharing critical actions, best practices, and resources and tools, and the Alive & Thrive project shared how they implemented relevant gender-sensitive SBC programming to improve nutrition outcomes in Ethiopia. While these materials were designed to build and sustain high quality technical skills and capacity of Food for Peace grantees, implementers, partners and collaborators, findings and guidance will also be applicable to researchers or other professionals seeking to give greater attention to gender and SBC in their own studies or project responsibilities. You can find the technical resources at http://www.coregroup.org/resources/497-enhancing-nutrition-and-food-security-during-the-first-1000-days-through-gender-sensitive-social-and-behavior-change or The Technical Resource Guide and The Technical Brief; the webinar can be heard at http://www.coregroup.org/component/content/article/48-webinars/498-enhancing-nutrition. We hope these materials are useful for nutrition and food security practitioners around the globe.