National Nutrition Social and Behavior Change Communication (NNSBCC) Strategy.

This National Nutrition Social and Behavior Change Communication (NNSBCC) Strategy is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at (i) guiding critical re-examination of behavioral-oriented factors contributing to malnutrition; (ii) providing appropriate interventions to address these factors for improved nutrition status of the community and the Nation at large. Basically, the Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) activities (i) support the prevention of malnutrition as well as the promotion and maintenance of good nutrition; (ii) help to build political and society-wide awareness and commitment to nutrition improvement; (iii) enhance individual behaviors and household practices; (iv) promote collective actions in communities; (v) improve the delivery of nutrition counseling services and the demand for these services; (vi) enhance the overall enabling environment for good nutrition outcomes. The overall goal of the Strategy will be achieved through the following 3 main Strategic Objectives (i) enhance nutrition behaviors to ensure that audiences benefit from well-designed and consistent messages, and effective, user-friendly tools and material; (ii) enhance the enabling environment; (iii) enhance capacity for state-of-the-art (SOTA) nutrition SBCC at national and decentralized levels.
Special considerations are needed for marginalized populations found in the community, normally characterized by social exclusion and poverty and, as a result, they are prevented from participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live. Thus is necessary to develop policies that allow the marginalized population to obtain knowledge (thereby empowering them to educate others in their own language and ways), together with policies and strategies that will help in reaching women and address other gender differences and needs.
To help eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the Strategy suggests to (i) improve nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and related skills; (ii) increase access to quality nutrition; (iii) promote interventions from the Traditional Birth Attendants’ Association that effectively contributes towards efforts to decrease maternal and newborn mortality rates through nutrition counseling service and educating the pregnant women on the importance of personal and environmental hygiene, nutrition, immunization, malaria prevention, and healthy behavior; they also encourage the mothers to breastfeed and educate mothers on how to care for their newborns. These associations can cover the full range of nutrition and malnutrition issues, including breastfeeding, complementary feeding, dietary improvement, hygiene and sanitation, home care of illnesses, and utilization of health services.
To enhance more inclusive and efficient food systems, are promoted interventions directed to increase social support (family, friends, peers) and collective actions for quality nutrition SBCC, services, and products. Furthermore, the community shall participate in the design and implementation of programs as per the nutrition SBCC strategy and provide feedback about the progress of implemented activities. It is also necessary to improve provider attitudes and provider-client relationships in nutrition information, counseling, and other nutrition SBCC services, i.e. food vendors access individuals and families easily, so they can serve as an entry point for nutrition SBCC messages and materials.
As for Governance, it is required to (i) strengthen institutional capacity to manage and implement SBCC Nutrition programming at national and decentralized levels, in order also to complement the private sector capacity of creative and production agencies and the academic sector.; (ii) improve coordination for harmonization and streamlining of nutrition SBCC activities. For this purpose, institutional structures, mandates, and core functions of the technical departments and staff need updating to better align with improved SBCC capacity.