Improving the nutritional status of women and children in South Asia remains a high public health and development priority. Women's groups are emerging as platforms for delivering health- and nutrition-oriented programs and addressing gender and livelihoods challenges. In the paper related to this webinar, the authors propose a framework outlining pathways through which women's group participation may facilitate improvements in nutrition. They also provide a review of the evidence around these pathways in South Asia.
In the webinar, discussant Neha Kumar will describe the approach to developing the conceptual framework, present the conceptual framework and discuss the different pathways. She will also showcase the main findings from the evidence review and provide some reflections on our learning as well as for future research.
The purpose of the webinar is for the audience to take away four key messages:
Women’s group programs have the potential to improve nutrition but the pathways to nutrition are long and complex
Depending on the type of program, the conceptual framework postulates that there are four potential pathways (income, food production, nutrition awareness and rights-based engagement) and three cross-cutting pathways (social capital, acting collectively and women’s empowerment) that lead to impact on nutrition
The evidence review shows that the existing evidence base is limited and that most studies do not provide insights on pathways
The ‘Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies’ (WINGS) program of work aims to strengthen the evidence base and improve measurement.
Presenter:
Neha Kumar, IFPRI
Moderator:
Ewen Le Borgne, CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research at KIT Royal Tropical Institute
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