START: OCT 01, 2023 | END: SEP 30, 2024 | FUNDING: $950,000
OVERVIEW
USAID, partnering with UNICEF, supports the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) to achieve standards of care and best practices in the promotion and protection of breastfeeding, and to provide high-quality infant feeding support to mothers, families, and communities.
HIGHLIGHT
USAID supports strengthening of institutional and human resource capacity to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. USAID, through UNICEF, will also provide technical assistance to the MOHP to conduct the next National Micronutrient Survey in START Nepal.
USAID & UNICEF Strengthen & Scale up Breastfeeding Hospital Initiative Helps the Government of Nepal (GON) to Meet its Commitments to Increasing Breastfeeding:
Under the Nutrition for Growth Breastfeeding Commitment Partnership, USAID, WHO and UNICEF jointly made a Nutrition for Growth (N4G) programmatic commitment, in December 2021, to improve nutrition and health outcomes of mothers and newborns by scaling-up quality breastfeeding promotion and support. USAID supports the MOHP to implement the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and to strengthen and scale-up the Mother-Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in federal and province level hospitals, to improve breastfeeding practices and impact.
Strengthens the capacity of the GoN to promote breastfeeding:
USAID provides technical assistance to the MOHP to improve institutional and human resource capacity to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. This includes strengthening and scaling-up lactation management centers in hospitals and facilitating peer support for mothers through support groups and breastfeeding counselors.
Helping the GoN to generate data to assess and improve Nepal’s nutritional status:
USAID, through UNICEF, and partnering with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides technical assistance to the MOHP to develop and implement the next National Micronutrient Survey to assess the status of vitamin A, iron, folic acid, iodine, zinc. This survey will also measure anemia and lead exposure.
