Type: Report

Healthier Pregnancies and Brighter Futures for Mothers and Babies: A global investment roadmap for multiple micronutrient supplementation

A collaborative of private philanthropies (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Eleanor Crook Foundation and Kirk Humanitarian) released a global investment roadmap designed to catalyze and prioritize action and investment in multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS). The roadmap presents an opportunity to reach at least 260 million women in 45 countries with MMS by the end of 2030, an ambition that would deliver profound health impacts for mothers and babies. The plan would save more than 600,000 lives, improve birth outcomes for more than 5 million babies, and prevent anemia in over 15 million pregnant women. At a cost of just over $4 per pregnancy (a total cost of $1.1 billion over seven years – $720 million from donors and the remainder coming from domestic resources), the roadmap would translate to monumental health gains while directing coordinated efforts to strengthen and improve health systems and antenatal care services in parallel.

The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress

In 2021, The Lancet published the latest Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition, including three new papers that build upon findings from the previous 2008 and 2013 Series, which established an evidence-based global agenda for tackling undernutrition over the past decade. The newest series highlights how the evidence base for nutrition, health, food systems, social protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene interventions have evolved since the 2013 Series and identifies the priority actions needed to regain and accelerate progress within the next decade.

Qualitative Paid Leave Report: Furthering Our Case for Paid Leave in the United States

Our latest report, Qualitative Paid Leave Report: Furthering Our Case for Paid Leave in the United States, is based on a study we commissioned to examine how lack of paid leave affects the well-being of new mothers and their babies, particularly women working in low-wage jobs, and to amplify the experiences of low-wage working mothers in their own words. By interviewing and surveying 20 women in five states that did not require workers to have access to paid leave, we learned about how mothers navigate the experiences, demands and joys of motherhood.

For more about the report, our work with paid leave and how you can help, visit here.

Nourishing Gender Equality: How Nutrition Interventions are an Underleveraged Tool in the Fight for Women’s Rights

The nutrition and women’s empowerment sectors are mutually reinforcing, and it is time to link them more intentionally. Nutrition interventions are critical to making concrete, cost-effective, and long-lasting improvements to the status of women and girls around the world.

There are three specific areas where a more intentional focus on nutrition offers advantages for women and girls in their fight for gender equality:

  • From even before a girl is born, good nutrition is a crucial component in supporting her lifelong right to Health and Survival, allowing women to live longer, better lives.
  • By boosting individual workforce participation and earning potential, good nutrition has a proven positive impact on women’s full and equal Economic Participation and Opportunity.
  • Access to good nutrition allows girls’ brains to develop fully and impacts how well women and girls can perform in school. It also secures their right to equal Educational Attainment with men and boys.

The First 1,000 Days: The Case for Paid Leave in America

The United States is one of the only countries in the world without a national policy in place to provide mothers with paid time off to care for their health needs during and after pregnancy or to care for their newborn. As a result, nearly 1 in 4 women return to work within just 2 weeks of giving birth – a reality that has serious consequences for their health and that of their children. In a first-of-its-kind analysis, 1,000 Days builds the case for paid leave as a public health imperative and calls for a comprehensive paid leave policy that ensures all workers can take the time they need to care for themselves or their loved ones without jeopardizing their economic security.

Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days: A Foundation for Lifelong Health

The 1,000 day window, between a mother’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday, is a critical time that helps set the stage for the child’s future well-being. During this period, proper nutrition is crucial for supporting rapid brain development, building the immune system, and other essential functions. 1,000 Days, with support from Zero to Three and their Think Babies Campaign, has created this resource, Nutrition in the First 1,00 Days, to focus on the importance of investing in nutrition during this foundational period.

The International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes – 2017 Update

Many people who have heard about the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes have expressed interest in knowing more about it.The purpose of this booklet is to provide easy-to-read detailed information on specific questions related to the Code. It is intended for policy-makers, health workers and others concerned with the Code, as well as the general public.

The Lancet Series – Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale

The 2016 Lancet Early Childhood Development Series highlights early childhood development at a time when it has been universally endorsed in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This Series considers new scientific evidence for interventions, building on the findings and recommendations of previous Lancet Series on child development and proposes pathways for implementation of early childhood development at scale.