Countries where Optima Nutrition has been applied

Optima Nutrition has been applied to countries in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa to address national and sub-national policy and programming questions. Specifically, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Pakistan to address national and sub-national policy and programming questions, with ongoing work in Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, India, Sierra Leone and Tajikistan.

Bangladesh case study

An Optima Nutrition application in Bangladesh was conducted to determine how resources should be allocated across a mix of nutrition interventions and by geographical regions for different funding levels. The study considered funding allocations across seven geographical regions of Bangladesh, as well as six interventions:

• Breastfeeding promotion;
• Public provision of complementary foods;
• Balanced energy-protein supplementation;
• Vitamin A supplementation;
• Complementary feeding education; and
• Antenatal micronutrient supplementation.

We found that

• Optimizing current financing allocation could reduce the number of stunted children by 1.4 million as compared to current allocation.
• Optimizing an additional $10m could result in a further 1 million cases of stunting averted.
• Priority programs should be complementary feeding (and breastfeeding) education and young child feeding package.
• Priority areas for coverage expansion are Dhaka and Chittagong (60% of the additional financing allocated to those two regions).