Nutrition intervention in developing countries; study I, supplementary feeding

To help redress this deficiency, this study provides guidance to planners designing and evaluating SFP"s in developing countries. SFP"s alleviate nutritional deficiencies for over one billion preschool children and pregnant and lactating women -- who are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition and related illnesses -- and often offer maternal nutrition education. Nonetheless, SFP"s can only meet immediate, short-run nutrition needs and thus can never substitute for income-increasing and redistributive measures or long-term solutions to food needs. Three common types of SFP"s are described: (1) nutrition rehabilitation centers, which provide entire nutrient needs and medical attention for severely malnourished children but are high-cost and thus relatively few in number; (2) on-site feeding programs, which provide a daily meal to preschoolers, often in combination with day-care or health services; and (3) take-home programs, the most common type of SFP, which provide food for home consumption by targeted beneficiaries who, however, often share the food with others in the family. The bulk of the study identifies major considerations in designing SFP"s in terms of community involvement, participant selection, food type, food quantity, time dimensions, location, site facilities, logistics, and control of managerial processes. Evaluation should be an integral part of SFP"s and should include systematic collection of data on costs and targeted nutritional effects (detailed by the authors) as measured by anthropometric methods compared to growth standards, e.g., weight-for-height. Case studies of SFP"s in Pakistan, India, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic are provided to illustrate program design considerations and the importance of baseline data, control populations, and coverage of the target population. A 187-item bibliography (1956-81) is included.