Community collaboration for improved nutrition: what works

Abstract Summary
Over the past nine years, Action Against Hunger Tanzania has implemented holistic, gender-transformative community health and nutrition program in Singida and Dodoma regions. The initiative targets pregnant and lactating women, children under five, and adolescents, promoting connection, shared leadership, and co-created behavior change through trusted community structures.   By empowering communities to challenge harmful gender norms, the program fosters inclusive participation in household and community decision-making, leading to sustained behavioral transformation.
Communities are mobilized through Care Group sessions, Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs), community dialogues meetings, household visits, school club activities, climate-smart agriculture trainings, and SRHR education sessions. These activities, facilitated by trained community health workers, health care providers, local leaders, and Gender Equality Champions for Nutrition (GECNs), build trust, mutual learning, and collaboration. Together, they provide counselling on nutrition, maternal and child health, WASH, SRHR, and GBV, creating spaces for joint problem-solving and shared accountability. The program reaches over 116,000 community members, including 28,500 pregnant and lactating women, 22,400 male caregivers, and 34,200 adolescent girls. 
Key lessons highlight the power of connection and relationship in fostering male engagement, school-based participation, and collective ownership.  Program outcomes include increased male involvement in childcare improved maternal and child nutrition practices and strengthened community collaboration. 
This ongoing initiative demonstrates that when communities lead through connection and trust, gender-transformative change and improved nutrition outcomes are both achievable and sustainable. 

Malnutrition remains critical public health challenge in Nepal, especially for women and children, during the first 1,000-days from conception to a child's second birthday. Although the prevalence of stunting among children under five has declined from 57% in 2001 to 25% in 2022, wasting has shown little improvement, fluctuating between 11% in 2001 and 8% in 2022, leaving Nepal off-track to meet World Health Assembly 2025 targets and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. To address these challenges, CARE Nepal is implementing the Nurture Every Future Poshan project (Poshan) in Nepal. Poshan aims to improve wellbeing of children under five and their mothers by strengthening health systems, enhancing nutrition care and feeding practices, improving household food security, promoting food safety and hygiene, and advancing women's empowerment. Interventions are aligned with Nepal's Multisectoral Nutrition Plan III, and informed by needs assessments among marginalized mothers, children, and key system actors.

Drawing on baseline and formative research that highlighted harmful social norms impeding nutrition outcomes, CARE introduced community-based nutrition social behavior change sessions through Health Mothers' Groups (HMGs), in partnership with local governments, health system actors, and community leaders. These sessions have been instrumental in improving health-seeking behaviors, adoption of nutrition care and feeding practices, and increasing dietary diversity, sanitation and hygiene, and women's agency. Community-based social behavior change in collaboration with system actors like HMG members, health workers, female community health volunteers, and municipal representatives effectively improved nutrition practices and dietary diversity of women and children, and women's empowerment.

In Ethiopia, persistent gaps in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices and caregiving behaviors contribute to high rates of acute malnutrition, particularly in rural areas. This abstract presents implementation learnings and evaluation findings from the Community-Led Complementary Feeding and Learning Sessions (CCFLS) model, implemented under CRS Ethiopia's Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) "Ifaa" program in East Hararghe, Oromia region. CCFLS convenes groups of 12–15 caregivers of at-risk children aged 6–23 months for 12-day participatory sessions featuring communal cooking demonstrations and health messaging, facilitated by Community Health and Nutrition Promoters (CHNPs) supported by Health Extension Workers (HEWs) followed by six months of structured home visits.


The evaluation highlights how locally embedded social and behavior change communication (SBCC) strategies facilitated by trained CHNPs and HEWs can drive measurable improvements in child nutrition, hygiene, feeding, and caregiving practices. Notable behavioral improvements were observed in male engagement, children's dietary diversity, meal frequency, safe food preparation, and handwashing with soap at critical times, accompanied by reductions in underweight, wasting, diarrhea, and related morbidities among children aged 6–23 months.


By aligning with government systems and leveraging existing community platforms, CCFLS fostered inclusive participation and strengthened local ownership through Ethiopia's National Nutrition Programme. Its structured curriculum and participatory design enabled sustained behavior change, positioning the model as a scalable approach for integrated SBCC delivery in resource-constrained settings. The model exemplifies how collective action, community leadership, and system-wide collaboration can accelerate impact directly contributing to the Summit's call for "Strength in Numbers".

Cambodia faces a triple burden of malnutrition, driven by low dietary diversity and rapidly shifting food environments dominated by white rice, sugar, and ultra-processed foods. In Mondulkiri province, despite 36% of households being unable to afford a nutrient-adequate diet, sugary drinks and unhealthy foods are widely consumed. These challenges are compounded by socio-economic vulnerability and gender norms that place caregiving and food preparation largely on women.
Mahob Brojam Krousar ("Family Food Game") was developed to address these challenges through a playful, family-centered SBC approach embedded within Agricultural Cooperatives (ACs). Based on the Elephant, Rider, Path framework and informed by a Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) assessment, the intervention targets knowledge areas directly linked to the target attitudes and behaviors. By co-creating with local leaders and integrating into existing livelihood groups, the intervention demonstrates how community-led collaboration can transform household behaviors and advance equity in nutrition.
The six-session, gamified program uses interactive challenges, recipe-based activities, and collectible ingredient cards to make learning inclusive and engaging. Early results show strong interest and highlight key success factors including timely invitations, simplified messaging, and increased male involvement. Lessons learned informed refinements to strengthen facilitator training and group organization. This model offers a scalable pathway to embed nutrition into community platforms and normalize gender-equitable caregiving. The intervention fosters strong engagement and collective ownership through community-led delivery, creating sustainable pathways to improve nutrition behaviours. In doing so, it reimagines knowledge, action, and equity through connection and collaboration.