What Can We Learn from Nutrition Impact Evaluations? Lessons from a Review of Interventions to Reduce Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries
This paper reviews recent impact evaluations of interventions and programs to improve child anthropometric outcomes- height, weight, and birth weight-with an emphasis on both the findings and the limitations of the literature and on understanding what might happen in a non-research setting. It further reviews the experience and lessons from evaluations of the impact of the World Bank-supported programs on nutrition outcomes. Specifically, the review addresses the following four questions: 1) what can be said about the impact of different interventions on children's anthropometric outcomes? 2) How do these findings vary across settings and within target groups, and what accounts for this variability? 3) What is the evidence of the cost-effectiveness of these interventions? 4) What have been the lessons from implementing impact evaluations of Bank-supported programs with anthropometric impacts? Although many different dimensions of child nutrition could be explored, this report focuses on child anthropometric outcomes-weight, height, and birth weight. These are the most common nutrition outcome indicators in the literature and the ones most frequently monitored by national nutrition programs supported by the World Bank. Low weight for age (underweight) is also the indicator for one of the Millennium Development Goals.
Summary: | This paper reviews recent impact
evaluations of interventions and programs to improve child
anthropometric outcomes- height, weight, and birth
weight-with an emphasis on both the findings and the
limitations of the literature and on understanding what
might happen in a non-research setting. It further reviews
the experience and lessons from evaluations of the impact of
the World Bank-supported programs on nutrition outcomes.
Specifically, the review addresses the following four
questions: 1) what can be said about the impact of different
interventions on children's anthropometric outcomes? 2)
How do these findings vary across settings and within target
groups, and what accounts for this variability? 3) What is
the evidence of the cost-effectiveness of these
interventions? 4) What have been the lessons from
implementing impact evaluations of Bank-supported programs
with anthropometric impacts? Although many different
dimensions of child nutrition could be explored, this report
focuses on child anthropometric outcomes-weight, height, and
birth weight. These are the most common nutrition outcome
indicators in the literature and the ones most frequently
monitored by national nutrition programs supported by the
World Bank. Low weight for age (underweight) is also the
indicator for one of the Millennium Development Goals. |
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