Presented at 'Strengthening National, State and District-level Actions for Nutrition: Insights from the National Family Health Survey Data' on 13th December, 2017 at IIC, New Delhi. Visit the POSHAN website for more: www.poshan.ifpri.info

1. Data and Evidence to Address India’s Nutrition
Challenge:
POSHAN’s State Policy Notes and District Nutrition Profiles
Purnima Menon, PhD
Senior Research Fellow & Theme Leader for South Asia Nutrition Programs
Program Director, POSHAN
Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division & South Asia Office, IFPRI
POSHAN is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

2. 2017: An unprecedented time for accelerating
nutrition actions in India
Bringing it
together
National Nutrition
Strategy, with targets
National Nutrition
Mission, with budget
Existing
landscape of
programs
State-level nutrition
commitment &
interest
New data on
nutrition
Improved nutrition
in 2022 (and looking
towards 2030)
How to turn
commitment
to impact?

3. POSHAN: a knowledge initiative focused on
data & evidence for nutrition
Problem
• Situation of
undernutrition and
determinants at
national and state level
• District-level
undernutrition and
determinants
Solutions
• Policies
• Programs
• Interventions

4. The many uses of data
• Harmonizing our
understanding of nutrition,
its determinants and
coverage of programs
• Diagnostic assessments to
support priority actions
– Geographic and programmatic
• Benchmarking for district,
state and national reviews
• Research
• And more!

5. The POSHAN team’s work with the
NFHS-4 summary data
State fact sheets
District fact sheets
~70,000 data
points
Topic-specific analyses:
coverage, stunting drivers, etc.
Trends report
Policy Notes
District Nutrition
Profiles
29
640
1Early to mid-2017
Data Notes
2

6. POSHAN’s Policy Notes on State Nutrition
Outcomes, Determinants and Interventions
• Overview of nutrition
at the state-level
• Highlights nutrition
challenges, progress
on determinants and
coverage
• Highlights district-
variability within state
• Many uses!

7. POSHAN’s District Nutrition Profiles: 640 districts
• Nutrition outcomes, immediate
and underlying determinants
and coverage
• Can be used in many ways and
by many actors!
– A diagnostic tool to understand
the determinants of nutritional
outcomes at a local level
– To pinpoint areas for strategic
actions/interventions
– To identify areas for deep-dive
analysis/research
– To cover nutrition in the local
media
– For advocacy
– And more…

8. POSHAN Knowledge Products
29 640

9. RESEARCH AND POLICY PRIORITIES

10. Priority topics for work with unit-level
NFHS-4 data
• Update trend analyses, coverage gap maps and other
analytics where indicator definitions need further
harmonization across survey rounds.
• In-depth topical analyses focused on:
– Decomposition analyses to understand the drivers of change in
several WHA target indicators including stunting, wasting,
anemia, and exclusive breastfeeding.
• India (overall), and for specific states.
– Determinants of nutrition outcomes (esp. wasting and stunting)
and the role of immediate and underlying determinants
– Nutrition coverage-focused analysis focused on inequity, factors
associated with current coverage and changes in coverage
– Other topics!

11. Use of data and knowledge products
• Harmonizing our understanding
of nutrition
– Critical because the people who
need to act are so many!
• Diagnostic assessments to
support priority actions
– Geographic and programmatic
• Benchmarking for local reviews
• “Baseline” for the National
Nutrition Strategy/Mission and
for state nutrition missions
• And more!