The Health Policy Project ended in 2016. Work continued under Health Policy Plus (HP+) until 2022.
PUBLICATION
Author(s): Reshma Naik and Rhonda Smith
Primary Language: English
Date: 5/30/2015
Abstract:
Tackling undernutrition and achieving food security will require cross-sector collaboration, innovative approaches, and optimizing the use of all available interventions. In 2014, the USAID-funded Health Policy Project conducted two reviews of the empirical evidence on the impacts of one intervention—family planning—on food security and nutritional status, respectively.
This brief on nutrition shows that when women exercise their freedom and right to access voluntary family planning to meet their fertility intentions, there is a natural decline in the prevalence of high-risk and unintended pregnancies; and that by averting such pregnancies, improvements in key maternal, infant, and child nutrition outcomes can be achieved.
The accompanying report is available here, and a companion brief on food security is available here.
Also see the companion desk review synthesizing the programmatic experiences of integrating family planning with food security and nutrition. It was conducted by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project (FANTA) and is available here: http://www.fantaproject.org/focus-areas/food-security/desk-review-programs-integrating-family-planning-food-security-and-nutrition.
