Multi-sector Coordination and Government Capacity

The project focuses on the first 1,000 days, from pregnancy through a child's second birthday, recognized as the critical window of opportunity for a child's growth and development. Save the Children manages the implementation of the project through a consortium of six international and five local partners. The project delivers results through five intermediate result areas, including agriculture and livelihoods, social and behavioral change communications, health and nutrition, WASH construction and marketing, and multi-sector coordination and pre-service education. The project also implements cross-cutting activities, including gender and women's empowerment, a rigorous learning agenda, convergence and overlay of multi-sector activities, and a crisis modifier to respond to emergency situations in the project's implementation areas. The project supports the Ethiopian government's increasing commitment to multi-sectoral responses to improve nutrition through government initiatives such as the Food and Nutrition Policy of Ethiopia, National Nutrition Program II (NNP), One WASH National Program (OWNP), Seqota Declaration, Productive Safety Net Program IV, and Agriculture Growth Program II. Growth through Nutrition builds the capacity of individual sectors to ensure multi-sectoral coordination at all levels, and supports the development and implementation of nutrition-specific and sensitive policies and programs. Implementation of the project took place from September 2016 to August 2021, with funding provided by the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project covered 102 woredas in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray Regions. The project's activities included conducting a Human Resource Capacity Needs Assessment for all NNP implementing sectors, contributing to the development of a School Health and Nutrition package for school health interventions, and supporting the development of FMoA's Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Strategy and training materials. The project strengthened nutrition technical expertise across sectors through pre-service education, improved nutrition and WASH education quality through quality improvement workshops, and built both the technical and teaching skills of over 1,300 education faculty through various training. The project also strengthened nutrition and WASH skill competency of students by providing teaching materials for labs and classrooms. Additionally, the project supported the establishment and strengthening of 101 woreda multi-sector coordination bodies and mentored 10 woredas to become models after sensitizing members on nutrition and the NNP. The project played a key role in the development of the Food and Nutrition Policy from its initial phases to its final endorsement in December 2018, providing technical and financial support. The project also initiated the Food and Nutrition Strategy development in collaboration with partners. The project's progress on the ground from October 2016 to March 2019 included the establishment of 101 woreda multi-sector coordination bodies, the development of a School Health and Nutrition package, and the support of the development of FMoA's Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Strategy and training materials.