Gender Equality in Health and Nutrition Programming in Afghanistan (Long Version)

Improving Nutrition for Mothers, Newborns and Children (INMNC) in Afghanistan was a Global Affairs Canada funded project from 2013-2017 which aimed at improving the nutritional status of newborns, children under five and women of reproductive age in selected provinces in Afghanistan through a sustainable and gender sensitive approach to nutrition service delivery within the health system. Save the Children worked in close collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and locally selected Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) implementing NGOs to address the dismal maternal, newborn and child nutrition (MNCN) situation in the nine provinces where nutritional health, particularly of women and children is very poor.
The project’s aims were:
• Increasing availability of nutrition-related goods and services for women and children.
• Increasing awareness and knowledge among both men and women of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.
• Enhancing government capacity to plan, implement and evaluate maternal, newborn and child health programs.
This project video illustrates how SCC leveraged gender equality approaches empowering women and girls at the individual, family, community and governmental levels to improve the health and nutritional status of boys and girls under five, and women in a 4 year project in Afghanistan. It highlights innovative approaches to providing services that respond to gender-based barriers, as well as how we engaged a diverse set of stakeholders, including men. The video demonstrates the project’s impact on gender equality by demonstrating how the change process happened for individuals, groups, organizations, and communities; it captures stories that feature the project’s specific responses to widespread gender inequalities, which have a critical impact on health and nutrition outcomes for girls, boys and women in Afghanistan.