The Data for Decisions in Nutrition (DataDENT) initiative recently received a new grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its work strengthening nutrition measurement and data use to improve multisector nutrition policies and programs across low- and middle-income countries.
DataDENT is a collaborative initiative between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Results for Development, and the African Population and Health Research Center. The project is led by Rebecca Heidkamp, PhD, an associate scientist in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School.
This new grant launches the second stage of DataDENT, which will build from the original five-year project that began in 2017. This phase will operate primarily in Ethiopia and Nigeria and will also produce “global goods” that serve wider audiences across LMICs. While the first cycle primarily focused on measurement for nutrition activities in the health sector, this cycle addresses the measurement needs for multisector nutrition strategies that include maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, large-scale food fortification, nutrition-sensitive social protection, and other nutrition interventions. This stage will continue to utilize country-specific agendas to address barriers and build strong nutrition information systems across LMICs. Expected outcomes include:
- Improved strategic planning and coordination to support the collection and use of multisectoral nutrition data,
- Increased readiness to collect and use indicators of multisectoral nutrition intervention coverage, and
- Increased multistakeholder knowledge exchange, collaborative action, and access to capacity strengthening for stronger multisectoral nutrition data value chains across LMICs
Throughout the initial project, DataDENT led many successful advocacy efforts including supporting the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria craft a nutrition data coordination strategy, launching the Data for Nutrition Community of Practice, working to provide recommendations for investment in nutrition data as part of Nutrition for Growth, and adding nutrition questions to the Demographic and Health Survey core questionnaire.
With the first cycle of the project focusing on research completed, the team will prioritize implementation and expanded data use. Heidkamp and Ellina Wood, MPH, who also works on the project note, “We recognize that data are only one of many forces influencing policy and political decision-making; however, we seek to maximize the potential of data to support effective multisector nutrition policies and programs.”
You can learn more about these and other DataDENT activities at www.datadent.org
Key Bloomberg School team members of the DataDENT project include several faculty in the Institute for International Programs including Rebecca Heidkamp, Shelley Walton, Nadia Akseer, Abdoulaye Maiga, Melinda Munos and Robert Black. Two new hires have recently joined the team: Ellina Wood and Emily Bobrow. Anna Moronta-Rodriguez and Jonathan Alcazar provide administrative and finance support.
DataDENT is a collaborative initiative between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Results for Development, and the African Population and Health Research Center. DataDENT is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
