Overview

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Suaahara works in 25 underserved districts in Nepal to improve the health and wellbeing of the Nepali people by focusing on the nutritional status of women and children under-two years of age. Led by Save the Children, the project will work with communities, government and civil society organizations to provide women and their families with access to information and skills for better nutrition, hygiene and health practices.

The project will also support the Government of Nepal to enable it to achieve the goals in its National Nutrition Action Plan. For example, it will work with the government to build the capacity of health workers, as well as staff from the Departments of Agriculture, Local Governance, Education, and Water. This will create multi-sectoral collaboration and synergy to address the pervasive problem of under-nutrition in Nepal.

Suaahara means good nutrition, or “a good balanced diet is the strong foundation protecting our lives.” As part of the implementing team, CCP will support strategic social and behavior change communication initiatives that build on this message and lead to improved maternal, infant and child nutrition—including demand creation for locally available nutritious foods. It will also design a series of communication interventions that support national nutritional health issues.

Accomplishments

• Initiatives for households to adopt the Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) including Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF)
• Communication strategy
• Mass media and community mobilization
• Participatory trainings (schools and communities)
• Increased knowledge of nutrition of locally-available foods through:
  • Market day activities
  • Folk media, theatre, songs
  • Religious events and holidays
  • Links to private sector
• Technical assistance to the Government of Nepal in developing communication interventions for emerging national nutritional health issues
• Policy and program briefs that identify key outputs of the program and recommend broader implementation across a national scale
• Replicable healthy community model to investigate perceptions, attitudes and cultural factors associated with nutrition and feeding practices using innovative qualitative and quantitative research metrologies.