The HMHB Consortium aims to increase awareness of maternal nutrition and multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) within the larger context of women’s nutrition and equity. HMHB’s advocacy efforts are directed towards increasing investments and triggering policy change to adopt and scale maternal nutrition interventions, specifically MMS, by providing critical evidence-based resources and amplifying women’s voices.
MMS is one of the most cost–effective, impactful investments available today to improve maternal nutrition and birth outcomes.
In 2021 the World Health Organization decided to include MMS on the WHO Essential Medicine List, following a joint evidence-based submission by the Micronutrient Forum and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) in 2020.
HMHB and the MMS-Technical Advisory Group have developed an Advocacy Brief and Frequently Asked Questions document (FAQ) to support nutrition and public health professionals to advocate for the inclusion of MMS in national EMLs.
Historically, collective efforts within the global development sector have been directed largely to child nutrition. The Nutrition Year of Action 2021 offered an opportunity to drive new nutrition commitments and investments, specifically targeting women and mothers, and highlight MMS as one of the most cost-effective interventions in global development leading to enormous human capital gains.
The HMHB Consortium’s advocacy-related efforts include:
A resource to communicate the evidence and benefits of MMS for pregnant women and their babies with key messages that can be delivered to decision-makers or to those considering piloting, scaling, and implementing MMS.
Our short film series, Women’s Voices, capture the challenges many women and mothers face when trying to access nutrition and healthcare during pregnancy. The first video, featuring Agurash from Ethiopia, was launched on 8 March 2022, on International Women’s Day.
Our op-ed ‘Hidden Hunger and its Hidden Cost’, published in Devex in October 2021, positioned MMS as one of most-cost effective nutrition interventions, which leads to enormous human capital gains.
This Advocacy Brief and FAQ document address questions related to MMS and its inclusion in WHO’s Essential Medicines List to support national advocacy efforts.
Powering Women-Promising Futures, an official N4G side-event on 30 November 2021, championed women’s nutrition, health, and equity, and also showcased commitments for women’s nutrition, including MMS during pregnancy.
A WHO Health Talk on 8 June 2021 titled Women Nutrition: Resilience and Recovery on the Road to 2030, urged new and SMART commitments and highlighted evidence-based approaches to women’s nutrition, including MMS.
HMHB has developed a toolkit of resources to advance MMS at the country level. These resources are meant to guide and assist national actors to advocate for the prioritization of maternal nutrition, greater investment in nutrition interventions such as MMS, and adoption and scale-up of MMS at the national level.
These slides are a resource for anyone wanting to communicate the evidence and benefits of MMS for pregnant women and their babies. They contain key messages that can be delivered to decision-makers or to those considering piloting, scaling, and implementing MMS.
This Advocacy Brief and FAQ document answers questions related to the inclusion of MMS in WHO’s Essential Medicines List to support national advocacy efforts.
These short films depict stories of women from Ethiopia, Mumbai and Aurangabad, India and their challenges in meeting their nutrition and health needs during pregnancy.
