Empowering communities in Malawi so children can thrive and succeed

0 yrs

Duration of programme

$ 0 m

The Power of Nutrition contribution

$ 0 m

Partner match

$ 0 m

Total programme size

Programme Overview

Whilst stunting rates have fallen in Malawi over the past two decades (from 47% in 2010 to 37%), the prevalence is still high and well over the regional average of 29% in Southern Africa. The rate of population growth also means that the absolute number of stunted children in Malawi is increasing.

The Power of Nutrition together has brought together partners – the Hilton Foundation, Save the Children and Give Directly, to create a $12million programme which spans five years, addressing the root causes and contributing factors to chronic malnutrition and poor Early Childhood Development (ECD), within two districts of Malawi.

THIS $12MILLION CO-INVESTMENT BRINGS TOGETHER PARTNERS SAVE THE CHILDREN AND GIVE DIRECTLY IN A PROGRAMME DESIGNED TO LOWER STUNTING LEVELS AND IMPROVE CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES IN MALAWI.

ADDRESSING ECONOMIC BARRIERS TO ACCESSING NUTRITIOUS FOODS AND SERVICES BY PROVIDING HOUSEHOLDS WITH PREGNANT WOMEN AND MOTHERS OF CHILDREN UNDER THREE YEARS OLD WITH MONTHLY CASH TRANSFERS.

Programme OBJECTIVES

The programme and interventions are organised under three pillars:

  1. Cash transfers

Addressing economic barriers to accessing nutritious foods and services by providing households with pregnant women and mothers of children under three years old with monthly cash transfers of either $20 or $35 over the course of 30 months, to enable them access to nutritious food and essential services.

  1. Social and Behaviour Change

Addressing the cultural, social and environmental barriers to behavioural uptake and service utilisation and demand. Drawing on a rigorous formative research, gender analysis and Social and Behaviour Change, the programme ensures households with children under three years have access to accurate, relevant information and support through community based structures.

We are reaching adolescent girls (and boys) before they become pregnant to delay pregnancy and improve their health and nutrition, whilst also supporting teenage mothers to care for their children and themselves as a priority.

  1. Enabling environment

We are focusing on village, district and national structures to help improve access and quality of key health, nutrition and ECD services, improving coordination, use of data, effective planning and budgeting and addressing key bottlenecks to service provision. This pillar will also generate high quality, locally relevant evidence for better practice and linked advocacy activities.

How will success be measured?

The programme will contribute to a number of significant outcomes in Malawi and beyond, including:

  1. A significant reduction in infant undernutrition and improvement in other early childhood development indicators among children covered by the intervention (these include the key indicators of the Investing in Early Years programme such as: % of children 6-23 months who receive a minimum acceptable diet; % of children 0-6 months exclusively breastfed)
  2. An increase in awareness and understanding of the relative cost-effectiveness of different forms of integrated maternal and child cash transfer programmes approaches for improving early childhood development outcomes.
  3. Greater awareness among national and subnational government stakeholders of how, operationally, to integrate programmes for the prevention of stunting during infancy with institutions for early childhood development; and
  4. Through engagement with politicians, policy makers and donors, an increased appetite within Malawi for adapting existing social protection mechanisms or expanding new ones to tackle the high levels of stunting in the country and improve early childhood development outcomes more broadly.

 

programme partners

Implementing partners: Save the Children, Give Directly

The Power of Nutrition investors: Hilton Foundation, FCDO