Nutrition and Infant Feeding

Advocating for Improved Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices  

This baby arrived at a health center in Uganda with severe acute malnutrition. Thanks to URC's NuLife program, which is providing supplemental foods and measuring progress, he is on the road to recovery.

We support a range of initiatives to improve nutritional status in countries worldwide. In Guatemala, we contributed to improved child health outcomes through community-level growth monitoring. In Uganda,  URC improves nutritional status for people with HIV/AIDS by integrating nutrition assessment, counseling, and treatment into HIV/AIDS services. In Niger, we worked to integrate the assessment and treatment of severe acute malnutrition into routine pediatric services.

URC has advocated for improved infant and young child feeding practices through the development of curricula, job aids, and educational materials in a variety of countries. UNICEF  and USAID supported URC’s successful efforts to create a series of culture-specific job aids for counseling HIV-affected mothers on proper breastfeeding; translating WHO guidelines into locally appropriate messages. The job aids enable rapid scale-up of the messages in the new guidelines to health workers and mothers.

URC has also conducted nutrition-related research in Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Guatemala on topics including:

• Factors influencing the success and sustainability of mother- and baby-friendly health units
• Evaluation of the first phase of an infant feeding counseling program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV
• Acceptability, use and consumption of a complementary food and micronutrient supplementation product

Read about URC programs which serve orphans and vulnerable children.

Current Projects

Better Health Services (BHS)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2009 to present

Health Promotion and Communication Project (HealthPro)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2007 to present

Maternal and Newborn Health in Ethiopia Partnership (MaNHEP)
Funded By: Subaward from Emory University with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Project Duration: 2009 to present

Translating Research into Action (TRAction)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2009 to present

Technical Assistance and Support Contract 3: Global Health (TASC3 Global Health)
Funded By: United States Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2007 to present

USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) | Guatemala
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2008 to present

USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) | Global
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2007 to present

USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) | Tanzania
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2007 to present

USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) | Uganda
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2007 to present

Multi-Sector Alliance Program (Alianzas II)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development through Research Triangle International
Project Duration: 2010 to present

Food and Technical Assistance (FANTA) II
Funded By: United States Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2010 to present

USAID Primary Health Care Project in Iraq (PHCPI)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2011-2015

Partnership for the Community Management of Child Health (Prise-C)
Funded By: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Project Duration: 2010 to present

Past Projects

Infant and Young Child Nutrition (IYCN)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2006-2011

Food and Nutrition Interventions (NuLife)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
Project Duration: 2008-2011

Rehabilitation of the Infrastructure of the Ministry of Health: Component on Investment in Health Education
Funded By: Inter-American Development Bank and the Ministry of Health of Argentina
Project Duration: 1995

El Salvador Strengthening Health Project Technical Assistance and Support Contract 2 (TASC2)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2006–2009

Water and Sanitation for Health
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 1988–1994

Quality in Health (Calidad en Salud)
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 1999-2009

Latin America and Caribbean Health and Nutrition Sustainability
Funded By: US Agency for International Development’s Latin American and Caribbean Bureau and country Missions
Project Duration: 1990–1995

Rapid Expansion of Nutritional Recuperation Services for Malnourished Children in Nigerien Facilities
Funded By: American Jewish World Services, US Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and UNICEF
Project Duration: 2005-2007

Peru Strengthening Health Institutions Project, MaxSalud Component
Funded By: US Agency for International Development/Peru
Project Duration: 1994-1999

Quality Assurance Project (QAP) I, II, and III
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 1990-2008

Women and Infant Health Strategy
Funded By: US Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 1999-2003

Feasibility and Pilot Efficacy of Flash-Heated Breast Milk for Reduction of Maternal-to-Child Transmission of HIV in Tanzania
Funded By: The Thrasher Foundation and the National Institutes for Health
Project Duration: 2007-2009

Rural Community Health Project
Funded By: US Agency for International Development/Tunisia
Project Duration: 1981-1985

Technical Assistance and Support Contract 2 (TASC2): Global Health
Funded By: United States Agency for International Development
Project Duration: 2004–2009