National Nutrition Information System Technical Note Building A Strong Core Team

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. A strong core team is an essential aspect of building and operating a useful NNIS. It can positively influence critical aspects of an NNIS, including its governance, management, design, operations, scale-up and sustainability. The right core team also have a positive effect on communications, productivity, accountability, and the use of data for decision-making. This technical note provides a set of useful tips on design, governance, operations, and key activities of a core team for an NNIS.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. A situational assessment of existing system is an essential first step for establishing a national nutrition information system. This technical note provides guidance on a series of key questions related to operational assessments of a national nutrition information system. It also includes two important checklists for assessing an existing national nutrition information system – one on a set of possible investigative questions that could be used in an assessment and the other on a series of key actions for planning and conducting an assessment.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. A costing exercise is an important early step in planning a national nutrition information system. The exercise helps to specify the resources required for the successful development and implementation of an activity, i.e., the investment of resources and efforts required to build a functioning national nutrition information system. This technical note outlines key steps that countries can take to cost their nutrition information systems.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. This technical note describes how a national nutrition information system essentially functions as a nutrition data value chain. A value chain is a systematic way of identifying the different activities performed by an organization, how they interact and their value to the organization’s products that collects and analyses nutrition-related data to support informed, evidence-based decision-making.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. Making data understandable to stakeholders is key to influencing and informing decision-making on nutrition policies and programmes. Dashboards, scorecards, and profiles are commonly used to facilitate data use. This technical note provides a set of useful tips and reflection questions for those seeking to develop effective data visuals for nutrition audiences.

This report presents the findings of an operations research study conducted to assess the implementation of the Government of Bangladesh’s National Nutrition Services Program (NNS) and to identify the achievements, determine the bottlenecks that adversely impact these achievements, and highlight potential solutions to ensure smooth delivery of the program. A mixed methods research approach was used to evaluate five major domains of the program: management and support services; training and capacity development; service delivery; monitoring and evaluation, and; exposure to interventions. The study found that the overall NNS effort is an ambitious, but valuable approach to support nutrition actions through an existing health system with diverse platforms. The results indicate that although the maintenance of strong and stable leadership of NNS is an essential element to ensure integrated and well-coordinated comprehensive service delivery for the line directorate, the current arrangement is unable to ensure effective implementation and coordination of NNS. Focusing on some of the critical challenges related to leadership and coordination in the first instance, and on embedding a small core set of interventions into well-matched (for scale, target populations, and potential for impact) health system delivery platforms is most likely to help achieve scale and impact. Strategic investments in ensuring transparency, engaging available technical partners for monitoring and implementation support, and not shying away from other potential high coverage outreach platforms like some NGO platforms also could prove fruitful. Moreover, although the Government of Bangladesh, and the health system in particular, must lead the effort to deliver for nutrition, it is clear that development partners who have expressed a commitment to nutrition must coordinate their own activities and provide the support that can deliver on nutrition's potential for Bangladesh.