Best practices and lessons learned for sustainable community nutrition programming

It suggests ways that different governmental and non-governmental actors can collaborate effectively and emphasizes the importance of nutrition as an integral part of development. The key finding is that successful interventions are those that are conceived and implemented in a decentralized manner, centering around the community and encouraging community participation in every step of planning and implementation and at all levels of decisionmaking. This includes properly targeting program beneficiaries to those at highest risk; enlisting the participation and commitment of governments; establishing monitoring and evaluation systems to provide managers and supervisors the information needed to address and rectify programmatic issues; and carefully linking interventions with other development sectors such as agriculture and microcredit. The document also outlines a practical, five-step way, using these experiences, to establish CNPs: (1) identify key partners involved in planning and implementation of a CNP; (2) understand the nutrition situation at hand; (3) select the most appropriate program approach; (4) develop the institutional framework for implementation; and (5) design an appropriate program action plan.