International Programs

Use the links below to learn more about each International Program.

A2Z: Micronutrient Leadership and Support and Child Blindness Activity
A2Z is USAID's flagship project to address micronutrient deficiencies and prevent child blindness by taking proven interventions to scale-particularly through engaging the private sector and expanding the number of countries served and the number of people reached. A2Z's emphasis includes both nutritional supplements (iron, folate, zinc, vitamin A) and food-based strategies, in particular, fortification. A2Z aims to strengthen the coverage of fortified staple foods reaching low income families in 20-30 countries. A2Z is currently working in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Africa's Health in 2010
AED supports USAID's Africa Bureau in contributing to policy change related to health and nutrition in Africa and in strengthening African institutions. The nutrition team works with US government, international agencies, and African institutions to improve programs addressing nutritional problems. Priority activities include working with African partners to integrate and strengthen the delivery of Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) into maternal, newborn, and child health programs; to promote safe feeding practices for HIV-exposed children; and to address the nutritional needs of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS. The project also conducts research and analysis on areas of emerging interest, such as nutrition and tuberculosis.

Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral drugs, and Nutrition Study (BAN)
This study is looking at the impact of antiretroviral drugs and nutritional interventions, including maternal nutrition supplementation, exclusive breastfeeding, and use of locally produced therapeutic foods following early breastfeeding cessation, on mother-to-child HIV transmission and the health and nutritional status of mothers and infants. To date, over 1000 women and infants have been enrolled and are being followed for one year. The study is being carried out in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control, which funds the study, the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill and UNC Project/Lilongwe.

Combatting Micronutrient Deficiencies: A Program Gap Analysis
AED was asked by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to conduct a comprehensive review and analysis of programs to combat micronutrient deficiencies; to identify gaps in programming and funding; and make estimates of the economic ramifications of failing to address the problem.

Commercial Sector Analysis for Expanding Fortified Complementary Foods
AED joined with McKinsey & Company to conduct a commercial sector analysis for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assess the prospects for expanding the supply and use of high-quality foods and products for young children. This involved market research at the global and country level in India, China, South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria with pharmaceutical firms, consumer packaged goods companies, consumer groups, government, and NGOs. The goal is to identify the commercial barriers to entry and incentives required for the introduction of fortified complementary foods and products aimed at improving the nutritional status of 6-24 month old children among C and D class consumer groups. AED looked at a range of issues including consumer awareness, price/affordability, potential market size, R&D product development, distribution, and partnership prospects with the public/non-profit sector.

Counseling Tools on HIV and Infant Feeding
AED was contracted by the World Health Organization, Department of Child and Adolescent Health to develop a guide for conducting formative research to adapt global HIV and infant feeding recommendation to the local context, and to develop generic tools for counseling HIV-infected mothers on feeding options and decisions. The generic tools included a set of 16 counseling cards for use by health workers, take-home flyers for mothers and other care-givers, a comprehensive reference guide for use by program managers and counselors, and an orientation guide on how to use the materials. These materials are now part of WHO's new integrated course on infant feeding counseling, and have been adapted for use in several African countries.

Essential Services for Health/Ethiopia (ESHE)
The ESHE project, funded by USAID, aims to improve family health in Ethiopia. AED is carrying out nutrition and behavior change program activities under the project, including working with newly established volunteer health promoters at the community level. Volunteers are trained to promote "Essential Nutrition Actions" such as breastfeeding and use of iodized salt. The ESHE Project will reach an estimated 6.5 million direct beneficiaries in 60 focus woredas (20 in each of three target regions).

Expansion of PMTCT Services in Zambia
The main objective of the project, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is to integrate counseling for HIV, infant feeding, and maternal nutrition into health and community services to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their infants. Community members are being trained to build awareness and change health practices on maternal nutrition, as well as infant and young child feeding in the context of HIV/AIDS and PMTCT. The project is expanding work conducted by the LINKAGES project in two districts of the Southern Province of Zambia.

Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA)
FANTA provides technical assistance to NGOs and national governments in nutrition and food security program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation as well as nutrition and food security policy and strategy development. Through production of guidelines and program tools, in-country technical assistance, program review, and targeted evaluation and operations research, FANTA strengthens the impact of nutrition and food security programs and policies on food insecure and malnourished populations. The project, funded by USAID, advances food security knowledge by publishing and disseminating state-of-the-art technical information, including best practices and standards, and supports the development and testing of innovative interventions to prevent and treat malnutrition, such as community-based treatment of severe acute malnutrition in children and nutritional care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP)
The purpose of the five-year USAID project is to improve the health of Ghanaians through the use of state-of-the-art communications and social marketing initiatives. The project is supporting nutrition as an integral aspect of all of the USAID Mission's health programs-including child survival, maternal and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. One of the project's priority interventions is timely and appropriate breastfeeding. GSCP has four overall objectives: build capacity within the public and private sector to support effective behavior change activities; develop behavior change strategies that use mass media campaigns and support community activities to reinforce desired health behaviors; strengthen the ability of government officials and policymakers to advocate for programs and activities that create positive behavior change; and use social marketing to promote products and services that will support positive behavior change. AED is working in 28 districts, located in seven of the 10 regions of the country.

Health Communication Partnership (HCP)
The Health Communication Partnership (HCP), funded by USAID, promotes healthy societies by advancing the field of health communication, using proven and evidence-based strategies, and developing new approaches. HCP addresses HIV/AIDS; reproductive health, maternal health, child survival, nutrition; and infectious diseases (e.g. malaria, tuberculosis). At both individual and societal levels, the project advocates for supportive environments, effective health services, and health literacy. It focuses on three domains of communication intervention: individuals and communities, health services, and social and political environments. AED is leading the HCP program in Ethiopia, which includes a focus on infant and young child feeding. AED has also designed and launched a "health competent schools" initiative in Jordan, which includes activities to engage middle school-aged children in adopting healthy nutrition habits and prevent obesity.

Infant and Young Child Feeding Program (LINKAGES)
LINKAGES, a worldwide program funded by USAID, promoted five health-related practices: exclusive breastfeeding, timely and appropriate complementary child feeding, safe infant feeding in communities affected by HIV, better maternal nutrition, and the Lactational Amenorrhea Method as a safe, short-term, modern method of birth spacing. Over the past ten years, LINKAGES documented increases in the timely initiation of breastfeeding after delivery and exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life. For example, in Madagascar between 2000 and 2005 timely initiation of breastfeeding increased from 32% to 68% and exclusive breastfeeding for infants 0 < 6 months increased from 42% to 70%.

Additional Links:
LINKAGES in Ethiopia
LINKAGES in Madagascar

Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Electronic Discussion Forum
ProNut-HIV is a collaborative effort between the AED Nutrition Center and the AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology. The electronic forum shares up-to-date information, knowledge, and experience in nutrition and HIV/AIDS. The focus of the discussion group is nutritional care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The goal is to enhance positive living by promoting constructive dialogue between PLWHA, front-line workers, researchers, HIV/AIDS specialists, program managers, and policy makers. The expected outcomes of the discussion group are improved access to state-of-the-art information on nutritional care and support for PLWHA for professionals in the field, motivation of front-line workers to increase and improve nutritional care and support for PLWHA, empowerment of PLWHA through the experience of others living positively with HIV through proper nutrition, and consensus among front-line workers and policy makers on the importance of nutritional care and support for PLWHA.

Nutrition Strategy Analysis
AED joined with McKinsey & Company to provide technical assistance in the development of a nutrition strategy for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AED prepared micronutrient profiles and nutrition profiles by 'vulnerable group' and identified priority areas where interventions or research activities will make a sizable difference in addressing the problem of undernutrition.

Point-of-Use Water Disinfection and Zinc Treatment Project (POUZN)
The project, funded by USAID, is designed to prevent diarrhea by introducing point-of-use water disinfection and to reduce the severity and length of diarrheal episodes with zinc and ORS treatment. In India and Tanzania POUZN is engaging the commercial and public sectors to make both products widely available at an affordable price. For zinc this means accelerating registration as an over-the-counter treatment and building partnerships with local pharmaceutical firms to build distribution networks that reach at-risk populations and engage NGOs in getting the products to at-risk populations. A second focus is conducting large-scale public education campaigns and educating health providers on the new protocols for diarrhea prevention and treatment.

PROFILES
PROFILES is a participatory advocacy process that uses interactive computer-based models to project the functional consequences of poor nutrition on important development outcomes such as mortality, morbidity, fertility, school performance, and labor productivity. PROFILES also estimates the costs and benefits of nutrition programs in a given country. Created to communicate with policymakers, PROFILES offers a way to engage national leaders in policy dialogue about public health nutrition. PROFILES encourages program planners to examine potential payoffs of alternative program approaches. By learning to manipulate models and by becoming familiar with the supporting scientific literature, users gain an appreciation of the different functional consequences of malnutrition and the role of various interventions. Since 1993 when PROFILES was first introduced in Bangladesh, the process has been used in 25 countries to support specific policy changes.

REDUCE-ALIVE
REDUCE and ALIVE are participator advocacy processes based on interactive computer models that estimate the impact, in a specific region, of poor maternal and newborn care (respectively) on maternal and infant deaths; on short-and long-term illnesses, and disabilities; and on economic productivity. REDUCE and ALIVE include emphasis on nutritional factors such as maternal nutrition and anemia, low birthweight, and breastfeeding, Since 2000 REDUCE and ALIVE have been used in 12 countries to effect changes in policies, programs, and levels of funding.

Speak for the Child
Speak for the Child supports families and communities in western Kenya to improve the health, nutrition, and psychosocial care of young children orphaned and affected by HIV/AIDS. The project partners with experienced community-based organization to reach thousands of orphans and vulnerable children. Key components of the program, funded by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, include: recruiting and training household mentors who provide support to caregivers; establishing school, health clinic, and pharmacy agreements to cover preschool fees, immunizations, and medicines; ensuring that children have blankets, insecticide-treated bednets, and emergency food when needed; making certain that households have water purification products, soap, seeds, and fertilizer, and providing income generating opportunities to caregiver support groups.

Umoyo Network Capacity Building for Quality HIV/AIDS Services
This project aims to build the capacity of Malawian NGOs to implement an integrated strategy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and improved infant feeding counseling in health care and community settings. Since 2003, ten NGO PMTCT sites are providing the full PMTCT package; 3,297 pregnant women have been counseled at these sites and 316 are enrolled in the PMTCT program.

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