India: Digital tools to empower women on nutrition security

FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY, ENHANCED RESILIENCE PROJECT (FaNS), INDIA

Gender Competition 2020 – GG1 – 2nd Place

CONTEXT AND INITIATIVE

One fourth of undernourished people in the world live in India. In 2016-18, 39.5% of children under five in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh were chronically undernourished (stunting), and 19.6% acutely undernourished (wasting). Women and adolescent girls are more vulnerable to malnutrition than men due to prevailing social norms e.g. they eat last and what is left over, or men decide which foods to buy at markets. Under the BMZ special initiative ONE WORLD – No Hunger, the Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience Project addresses the strong correlation between gender inequality and nutrition by promoting equal involvement of women and men in nutrition-related decision making, reaching out to the rural populations and policy- and decision-makers.

GENDER – A QUALITY FEATURE OF OUR WORK

The introduction of the interactive e-learning training platform “Anganwadi Shiksha” is key to this approach, and the female frontline social workers, under the Department of Women and Child Development, play a fundamental role in it. These frontline workers are multipliers which empower women at community level through transferring nutrition knowledge and encouraging behaviour changes towards good nutrition and hygiene practices. The e-learning platform responds to all educational levels and the local context of the workers and supervisors. The project empowers women in all its multi-level interventions through participatory nutrition trainings at village level, mass-media communication and involving men e.g. in street theatres.

In addition, the project collaborates with the GIZ ProSoil project to enhance awareness on gender, agriculture and nutrition by using the webbased open source advisory tool “Network for Information on Climate (Ex) Change”.

GENDER IMPACT

After three years of joint development, the e-learning platform was integrated into the State partner’s Management Information System to sustain the digital solution.

   

The platform is regularly accessed by more than 100,000 frontline workers and supervisors. A study conducted in 2020 demonstrated that they found the platform comprehensive, systematic and in accordance with roles and responsibilities in their everyday work. The Indian National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and other Indian states, as well as two other countries under the GIZ Global Programme “Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience” from Africa and South Asia expressed interest to adapt and integrate the platform and participatory training approach into their contexts. In addition, the e-learning approach triggered the interest of various countries attending the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Global Gathering in Nepal, among them Laos, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Contact:
Gerrit Qualitz
E gerrit.qualitz@giz.de

 

Full information Roll Up:  GENDER COMPETITION 2020 Contributions SERIES I 4

Competition Entry:  18 EN GIZ India FaNS Gender Award Application E-learning Final 20191127

Presentation at Gender Award Ceremony:  FaNS India Gender Award Film - Compressed File

Effectiveness study 2020:

Have a look at the pictures of the Gender Award Ceremony on March 03, 2020: