Developing a Scalable Programme to Promote Early Childhood Nutrition and Development in Rural Uganda: a Feasibility Study

Over 2.4 million children under the age of 5 are stunted in Uganda, almost one third of all children under 5. A further 14% are underweight. Under-nutrition accounts for 40% of all child deaths in the country. There is strong evidence that under-nutrition in early life has life-long social and economic consequences including poor cognitive and educational performance, and reduced productivity in adulthood. Under-nutrition contributes to inter-generational poverty transmission and increased later risk of non-communicable disease. Evidence has shown that nutrition interventions, combined with stimulation, can improve poor early childhood nutrition and development outcomes. Yet, evidence is limited regarding interventions targeted at the first 1000 days that are cost-effective, feasible at scale and suited to rural Uganda. This project seeks to develop a scalable intervention to improve early childhood nutrition and stimulation in rural Uganda, and assess its feasibility and acceptability through small scale pre-testing.

Principal Investigator: Dr Jolene Skordis-Worrall, University College London