The Knowledge Hub brings together existing knowledge, guidance, tools, and other useful resources related to women’s nutrition, maternal nutrition, and evidence-based interventions targeting women, such as prenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS).
The Knowledge Hub is a dynamic, publicly accessible repository. It will be expanded and further improved over time, and we ask for your help in this. Please share any resources that you believe should be included in this Knowledge Hub, and send them to [email protected].
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Key scientific articles on evidence related to MMS.
MMS during pregnancy – Cochrane Review 2019
IPD Analysis on benefits of MMS – 2017
Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress – The Lancet Series
Top policy briefs and guides for advocating for maternal nutrition and MMS.
FAQ and Advocacy Brief on MMS in WHO’s EML
Useful tools for introducing MMS in countries.
Interim Country-level Decision-making Guidance for Introducing MMS
Formative Research in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Madagascar.
This overview of multiple micronutrients during pregnancy and lactation emphasizes two relatively neglected issues. The first is that maternal micronutrient status in the periconceptional period, and throughout pregnancy and lactation, should be viewed as a continuum. The second issue is that multiple micronutrient deficiencies occur simultaneously when diets are poor during pregnancy and lactation, resulting in poor maternal, newborn and infant health outcomes. While the optimal mode of meeting recommended micronutrient intakes is an adequate diet, in some situations supplementation is also important. There is a need for information on the optimal formulation of micronutrient supplements for pregnant women, and the need to recognize the continuation of these supplements during lactation.
This review evaluates the effects of multiple‐micronutrient supplementation (MMS) in breastfeeding mothers on maternal and infant health outcomes. This study found no evidence to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of MMS in improving health outcomes in mother and baby. The results of this review were limited by the small numbers of studies available, small sample sizes and the studies not reporting on the outcomes of interest in this review. There was no evidence to evaluate potential adverse effects of MMS, particularly excess dosages.
This tool, developed by Nutrition International, aims to aid countries’ decision-making. It uses a rigorous methodology to calculate the incremental benefits and costs of transitioning from iron folic acid supplementation (IFAS) to multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) in various countries. Users can construct and test different scenarios by updating the assumptions within the tool or running a Custom Analysis. Up to eight health outcomes are included in the analysis, and aggregated using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Further, Policy Briefs are available for the countries listed on the map. These documents summarize the results of the analysis and are designed for policymakers to answer the question “is antenatal MMS better value for money than IFAS?”
This blog examines the evidence that there is substantial intra household inequality that affects women’s diets and nutrition, and that women’s undernutrition is not solely due to impoverishment. It highlights that food, education, and health systems often do not sufficiently support healthy diets, which contributes to the prevalence of maternal overweight and obesity. it concludes that while further research is needed to understand the dynamics between food practices, gender norms, and intrahousehold power relations in other contexts, it is clear that girls’ and women’s nutrition is negatively impacted by socio-economic inequality.
This study investigated the empowerment of women in agriculture in association with household production and the dietary diversity of children 12–59 months old and their mothers in Timor-Leste. Using the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) 156 dual-adult rural households were analyzed applying multivariable regression models. Results showed that the dietary diversity scores of empowered women and their children were higher than among those disempowered. The associations between different measures of empowerment and dietary diversity were larger and more significant among women than children. Food production diversity was consistently associated with children’s improved diets. . Nutrition-sensitive policies and programmes in Timor-Leste could gain from prioritizing women’s empowerment and promoting agriculture diversification strategies as valuable investments to improve the diets and wellbeing of mothers and children.
To explore the gaps in social and behaviour change (SBC) resources for women’s healthy diets, this document identifies quality SBC tools and resources through expert consultations and document reviews that can be adapted and used immediately. In addition, this document also identifies gaps in existing SBC resources and gives recommendations for future research and SBC resource development. SBC nutrition programmers, planners, and researchers can use these findings and recommendations to design, implement, and monitor current and future research and quality SBC programming to improve women’s diets.
A desk review was conducted and is summarized in this document to highlight and provide references to research, guidelines, resources and tools that are relevant for anaemia reduction efforts. A “decision tree” is also included to assist countries through the process of identifying next steps in those efforts. Further, in order to obtain feedback from countries at various stages of anaemia reduction efforts, virtual interviews and an online survey were implemented. Key informant interviews were conducted among researchers and government officials in select countries with high or low success in reducing national anaemia rates among women, and these reviews were analysed. A complementary online questionnaire was shared more broadly through the WHO listserv. Results from the qualitative interviews/surveys performed for this review show that better results in anaemia reduction were obtained in countries where programmes were premised on a multisectoral approach, with involvement of all sectors working synergistically. The evidence also indicates that empowerment of women, and sensitization of the general community and of men on gender equity would contribute to better outcomes in anaemia reduction. Leadership and coordination mechanisms for anaemia reduction are required at global, regional and community level.
This publication is an update to the 2016 FAO/FHI 360 joint publication MDD-W (Minimum dietary diversity for women): A Guide to Measurement. It includes guidance on the most accurate and valid methodologies on collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data on women’s dietary diversity, for use in research, impact assessment and large-scale, health and nutrition surveys such as the Demographic Health Survey (DHS), to generate nationally representative data, that are comparable over time and across countries. In addition to supporting the regular collection of high-quality dietary data following standardized methodologies, the publication also aims to promote dialogues on and appropriate application of the data towards informing policy and programming decisions and monitoring and evaluation of nutrition outcomes and progress at global, regional, and country levels.
This document outlines the strategic framework of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies (HMHB) Consortium, hosted by the Micronutrient Forum, to improve women, maternal and child nutrition and health through science-based interventions, particularly, multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS). This document outlines the Consortium’s proposed role and responsibilities, vision, mission, priorities, and its organizational structure. This document incorporates information generated in earlier meetings and extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders.
This reports summarizes the key messages, findings, activities and next steps of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Accelerator, which aims to expedite the implementation and scale-up of multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) worldwide by reaching more than 17.5 million pregnant women and their newborns in multiple countries. It also reports on the multistakeholder meeting convened by the Micronutrient Forum in early February 2020 as a follow-up to the launch of the Accelerator, that included foundations, academia, implementers, the private sector, governments and NGOs to identify, inform, align and accelerate activity on MMS.
