MOTIVATION
Chronic malnutrition is a less apparent emergency than severe hunger, but it is no less of an obstacle to human and economic development. In 2004, the Ethiopian government made developing a clear and comprehensive national nutrition strategy a top priority, and the Ministry of Agriculture approached IFPRI and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for research and technical support. In 2005, IFPRI was part of a committee of experts that published a conceptual framework that identified the underlying causes of malnutrition, with particular emphasis on malnutrition in children, in Ethiopia and recommended a strategy to achieve nutrition security on a national scale. That document informed development of the Ethiopia National Nutrition Strategy, which was ultimately launched in 2008.
OUTCOMES
The conceptual framework, which was developed by IFPRI, UNICEF, and an interministerial steering committee, tried to identify how to realize adequate nutritional status for all Ethiopians and subsequently a healthy and productive nation. It paid particular attention to nutritional outcomes for infants and children under five, pregnant women, people with HIV, and people suffering from acute hunger. The nutrition coordination panel’s resulting publication outlined not only the underlying causes of malnutrition in Ethiopia but also a strategy to implement recommended policies and programs to overturn it.
The framework strategy, which recommended a multisectoral approach to addressing malnutrition, and the data IFPRI collected to inform it were cited in the following high-level institutional publications:
- Combating Malnutrition in Ethiopia: An Evidence-Based Approach for Sustained Results, A. S. Rajkumar, C. Gaukler, and J. Tilahun (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011)
- Ethiopia National Nutrition Strategy: Review and Analysis of Progress and Gaps: One Year On (US Agency for International Development and Save the Children: Washington, DC, 2009)
- “Realizing the Nutrition Potential of Social Protection: Progress and Challenges,” in the Social Protection and Child Malnutrition: Ethiopia briefing series (Save the Children: London, 2012)
- Nutrition Country Profile: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division: Rome, 2008)
- Mid-Term Evaluation of the Ethiopia Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation 10665.0, T. Robertson, B. O’Loughlin, A. Hoogendoorn (World Food Programme: Rome, 2010)
- Realizing the Potential of Household Irrigation in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency: Addis Ababa, 2013)
- The Causes of Malnutrition in Children under 3 in the Somali Region of Ethiopia Related to Household Caring Practices (Save the Children: London, 2007)
