LAUNCH OF STATE- AND DISTRICT-WISE NUTRITION DATA: AN UNPARALLELED OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCALIZED ACTION
Launch of POSHAN's state-level 30 Policy Notes and 640 District Nutrition Profiles
At a half-day event on “Strengthening National, State- and District-level Actions for Nutrition: Insights from the National Family Health Survey Data,” on December 13, 2017, at the India International Center, New Delhi, POSHAN launched a set of state-focused Policy Notes for all the states and District Nutrition Profiles for 640 districts in India.
The launch of this disaggregated state and district level data comes well in time to support India’s long-awaited National Nutrition Mission. This availability of district-level data in India is unprecedented in scale and depth. It presents an unparalleled opportunity for localized action to support the National Nutrition Mission’s targets of bringing down the stunting percentage from 38.4 percent to 25 percent by 2022, and reducing stunting, under-nutrition, and low birth weight by 2 percent, and anemia by 3 percent per annum.
To achieve these targets, it is crucial for all nutrition stakeholders to galvanize their efforts in an informed and coordinated manner. This event has rallied nutrition stakeholders from decision-making bodies, development partners, implementing organizations and State Nutrition Missions, to encourage the use of disaggregated data to support best possible actions for each district and state in India.
At the event, senior researchers made presentations on POSHAN’s work to analyze the National Family Health Survey data available to-date. High profile panelists, including DK Saxena, State Nutrition Mission, Jharkhand, HPS Sachdev, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science & Research, Lalit Dandona, Public Health Foundation of India, Prema Ramachandran, Nutrition Foundation of India, Robert Johnston, UNICEF, and Shamika Ravi, Brookings India, discussed research and policy priorities for the future to effectively address the challenge of undernutrition in India. Alok Kumar, Health Advisor, NITI Aayog, talked about the significance of using research evidence to support India’s Nutrition Strategy.
The state-level Policy Notes, which examine the trends in undernutrition in each state and document the trends and geographic variability in the major determinants of nutrition and the coverage of key nutrition and health interventions, can be accessed on our website.
District-level Nutrition Profiles for 640 districts of India, which compile a set of indicators on the state of nutrition and its cross-sectoral determinants, are ready to be shared and will soon be uploaded online. In the interim, please send us your request for updated DNPs at ifpri-poshan@cgiar.org clearly stating “DNP REQUEST - district name” in the subject line.
Please find the links to the photographs and the presentations from the event:
- Data and evidence to address India's nutrition challenge: POSHAN's State Policy Notes and District Nutrition Profiles by Purnima Menon (IFPRI)
- Multi-state stories: Insights from the frontrunners of stunting reduction by Phuong Hong Nguyen (IFPRI)
- Delivering interventions during the first 1000 days: Implications for achieving India's nutrition goals by Rasmi Avula (IFPRI).
