Effective nutrition programming for children and the role of UNICEF: consensus points from an expert consultation

Countries of the world have agreed on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and reducing the mortality rate of children under five by two-thirds by 2015 as part of the Millennium Development Goals, and without mainstreaming maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in the development agenda, these goals cannot be achieved. Although the recent Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition brought attention to the importance of early nutrition interventions to improve child health, nutrition, and future economic productivity, there needs to be a more concerted effort at clarifying the path forward, focusing on moving beyond projects and evidence from randomized, controlled trials towards developing large-scale programs with sound plausibility design to achieve results for children. In an effort to cast a fresh eye on nutrition programming in light of the new evidence, UNICEF Headquarters hosted an Expert Consultation on effective nutrition programming with participants from various academic organizations and United Nations agencies to discuss effective program strategies in nutrition. The consultation resulted in recommendations for UNICEF on eight focus areas for programming and recognition of six overarching themes. It is clear that more action is needed to accelerate progress: more effective global coalitions, better coordination, more coherence, and better targeting of efforts.