Table 2.
Assessments and formative research
| Design process | Bangladesh | Malawi | Peru | Zambia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topics | Urban/rural differences in IYCF; child illness; barriers and motivations for IYCF and handwashing; influencers; food/soap access; mother's employment; health care seeking; media habits; frontline worker knowledge and perceptions | Current practices, gaps, foods available, seasonality; feasibility and acceptability of enriched porridge recipes; functioning of health and agricultural extension workers; coordination mechanisms; coverage of food security and IYCF interventions | Mothers' perceptions/aspirations, feeding practices, difficulties, barriers, and motivations for IYCF, care seeking; food attributes, best buys, coverage & quality of IYCF service and counseling in health services, health provider knowledge, motivations for work; job aids/educational materials | Small farmer production practices; food costs; household food security; household dietary diversity; child illness; mother's IYCF knowledge; community health volunteer activities; coordination of community/government workers |
| Methods used | ||||
| 24‐h dietary recall | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Market survey/seasonality | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Mothers KAP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| In‐depth interviews | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Farm production | ✓ | |||
| Key informant interviews | ✓ | |||
| Health worker KAP | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Media habits, recall | ✓ | |||
| Rapid trials/pilots | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Empowerment index | ✓ | |||
| Observations | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Exit interviews | ✓ | |||
| Baseline/endline household surveys | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Longitudinal cohort | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Midline | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Main findings at baseline | ||||
| All CF indicators were low at baseline; poor appetite a problem; similarities in urban/rural IYCF; food resources available in ¾ families; soap available; large gaps in maternal knowledge in complementary feeding, low self‐efficacy; local terms for unhealthy/healthy child, frontline worker knowledge gaps, high reach of mass media for all groups; high coverage of volunteers | Low diversity and meal frequency; too early introduction of food; watery porridge; low consumption of vegetables, fruit, fats, and animal source foods; feeding from family plate and not a separate child's plate; poor hygiene practices; women's workload high; seasonal food deficits; gaps in sector coordination | Poor appetite; thin consistency of foods; low intakes of critical micronutrients/feeding difficulties; low coverage and quality of counseling in 3 health services contacts (well child care, pediatrics, nutrition); inconsistency of messages by health facility/personnel, lack of teamwork in health services; opportunities for improvement in IYCF feeding practices and in delivery of IYCF in health services | Low household and child diet diversity; few families produced micronutrient rich foods; household production linked to child diet diversity; gender empowerment linked to child nutrition; most families had access to and utilized health and agricultural services; barriers identified for multi‐sectoral coordination | |