HEALTH GARDENS, A NUTRITION CENTRED APPROACH

As part of its work to promote Food Security and Livelihoods interventions aiming at preventing undernutrition, ACF has produced a set of practical case studies based on recent and current nutrition-sensitive interventions in different contexts. This case study presents an innovative intervention implemented in Mali from 2007.

The district of Kita, known as the “breadbasket” of the Kayes region, has an important proportion of vulnerable households (60% according to 2006 Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping) and high malnutrition rates (GAM1: 10.3%; SAM2 1.4% according to 2007 ACF nutritional survey). An initial assessment indicated that in the South of Kita district, populations have access to staple foods, but little access to basic drinking water facilities, there is a low diversification of local production, and children and adults have very low food diversification in their diets.

In response to this situation, ACF has put in place from 2007 an innovative multisectoral strategy to fight malnutrition by combining food security, education, health and water and sanitation programmes. Within these programmes, the “Health Gardens approach” developped by ACF provided mothers with the necessary basic knowledge to improve the nutritional situation of their families through nutritional education and the improvement of food consumption diversity.

A short case study has been developed to present the innovative approach used for this project, in order to raise awareness and share good practices on how Food Security interventions can contribute to the prevention of undernutrition.

The document part of a set of studies on nutrition-sensitive interventions developed by the ACF “Aligning Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) with Nutrition” Working Group to show how these interventions can effectively contribute to a better nutrition, by using a nutrition lens at different steps of the project cycle. The aim of the “Aligning Food Security and Livelihoods with Nutrition” Working Group is to promote and scale up nutrition sensitive FSL interventions, through documenting lessons learnt, building evidence, developing tools and guidance and building capacity.

The full set of case studies can be found here: Our Expertise : fighting the causes and consequences of hunger – Action against Hunger (actioncontrelafaim.org)

For more information on the “Aligning” approach, please refer to the ACF manual: Maximising the Nutritional Impact of Food Security and Livelihoods Interventions. A Manual for Field Workers.

Case studies : maximising the nutritional impact of foos security and livelihoods interventions (actioncontrelafaim.org)