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Programming to Improve Adolescent Nutrition is Essential—and These Resources Can Help
By: Malia Uyehara, Project Officer, USAID Advancing Nutrition
Adolescence is a period of rapid growth between the ages of 10–19, presenting a “second window of opportunity” to influence an individual’s growth and development. Adolescents have a unique set of needs and behaviors, especially when it comes to nutrition and food choices; adolescence is a critical period to build long-lasting habits that will support healthy growth and development. Adolescents’ increasing independence makes establishing good nutrition and dietary habits particularly important for their current and future health.
Adolescents can have significant variations in their households and lives—in their socioeconomic, school, employment, environmental, marital, and parental circumstances. Food and nutrition policies and programs must directly respond to their complex and diverse needs and foster good practices.
Adolescence is also a time when individuals are building confidence; learning to act independently; and making important decisions related to their diet, eating, and self-care practices.
Effective action to support adolescents' nutrition during this unique time period requires the engagement, coordination, and joint programming of multiple sectors including health, education, agriculture, food systems, water and sanitation, and social protection. To date, few programs have focused on adolescent nutrition, but as more organizations begin to improve adolescent nutrition, there is a need to share program tools and experiences from their work.
The Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank
In 2018, more than 100 organizations committed to prioritizing and improving adolescent nutrition in response to the Adolescent Nutrition Call to Action co-hosted by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Pan American Health Organization, and the USAID-funded Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) Project. The clear need for knowledge and learning in this space inspired the creation of the Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank.
Developed by USAID Advancing Nutrition, USAID’s flagship multi-sectoral nutrition project, the Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank is a repository of more than 250 programmatic resources including policies, program examples, guidance, and tools. The resource bank provides easy access to help adolescent nutrition stakeholders—governments, USAID and other donors, faith-based and youth-led organizations, and service providers—design, improve, and expand programs and services.
Since the launch of the Adolescent Resource Bank in March 2021, the landing page has had approximately 2,400 unique visitors to the website from 131 different countries, who have engaged with and contributed resources. The USAID Advancing Nutrition team conducts searches and calls for resources to add to the bank on a quarterly basis to ensure the bank remains a current and inclusive repository that contains up-to-date information on new innovations, evidence, and best practices on how to effectively address and improve adolescent nutrition.
Tips to effectively use the Adolescent Resource Bank:
- Search by program area (e.g., social and behavior change, adolescent engagement) and/or technical area (e.g., micronutrient interventions, food security).
- Access program area pages to learn more about each area and their relevant resources.
- Conduct an advanced search by audience, schooling, marital status, and more.
- Enter in keywords to narrow your search.
Visitors can read brief descriptions of the resources generated by the searches, along with information like the geographic focus and language of the documents, to inform their own programs, such as the example below.
Resource Highlight: Considerations for Conducting Formative Research
As more implementers consider engaging with adolescents, they may need to conduct formative research to determine how to plan an intervention or program. Adolescents’ needs vary widely according to their context (e.g., residence, education, wealth, agency, access to food, culture) and physiological status (e.g., pregnancy, puberty). Formative research helps design effective program materials, tools, and approaches that target adolescents’ unique needs and contexts. Program planners and implementers can access Conducting Formative Research on Adolescent Nutrition: Key Considerations through the resource bank to assist with this. It shares best practices and lessons learned from a desk review and consultations with 13 researchers and implementers worldwide and provides the following recommendations for designing and conducting formative research with adolescents in low- and middle-income countries, with examples including—
- For younger adolescents (10–14 years), use participatory methods.
- Engage adolescents in protocol design, analysis, or program and policy design.
- Address ethical considerations, like consent, assent, and social and gender norms.
The USAID Advancing Nutrition team is using this guidance to develop and conduct formative research among adolescents in Nigeria. The team will begin by involving adolescents in a workshop to develop the research protocol. We will post results from this research on the USAID Advancing Nutrition website.
Contribute to the Adolescent Nutrition Resource Bank
Do you have a resource you’d like to share with the adolescent nutrition community? If so, please contact us at info@advancingnutrition.org.
Avez-vous une ressource que vous voulez partager avec la communauté de la nutrition des adolescents? Veuillez nous contacter à info@advancingnutrition.org.
¿Tiene algún recurso que le gustaría compartir acerca de la nutrición de los adolescentes? Si es así, envíenoslo a info@advancingnutrition.org.
To learn more or search for resources, please visit https://www.advancingnutrition.org/adolescent.
This article was originally posted on the USAID Advancing Nutrition LinkedIn page.
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