Updates from the Nutrition Innovation Lab

To successfully carry out maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) research activities in Jordan and capture clinically sensitive data from the target population in the country, there needs to be increased engagement of female professionals working in MIYCN. The Feed the Future Jordan Nutrition Innovation Lab strives to address this need through various capacity building activities and recently conducted a five-day anthropometric training from October 1st- 5th, 2023 in Amman to equip women with the skills needed for taking anthropometric measurements for data collection.

Mohammad Qardan is the in-country Program Manager at the Feed the Future Jordan Nutrition Innovation Lab (JNIL). He has been working with the Lab since July of 2021 and will be leaving JNIL at the end of August to pursue a master’s degree at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom (UK). Read more about Mohammad and his experiences with the Lab below!

The USAID-supported Jordan Nutrition Innovation Lab (JNIL) is pleased to announce that four fellows have been selected as recipients of the JNIL 2023 Fellowships Program: Dr. Iman Mahmoud, Assistant Professor at the University of Petra, Dr. Rand Akasheh, Assistant Professor at American University of Madaba, Dr. Hiba Al-Fahmawi, Assistant Professor at the University of Jordan, and Dr. Khetam Al-Awamreh, Assistant Professor at Al Al-Bayt University.

As the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition comes to a close on September 30, 2021, we would like to sincerely thank all who have been involved in our work over the years. Our research and capacity building activities, spanning all the way back to 2010, could not have been accomplished without the dedication of our many local and global team members.

As part of its commitment to generating new evidence relevant to both nutrition and agriculture, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition has been investigating food safety issues, including the impact of food-borne mycotoxins on human nutrition and child growth.

Under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Associate Cooperative Agreement No. 72027820LA00003, Tufts University Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition is pleased to announce a new a partnership with Mindset, a research firm based in Jordan. Through a competitive bidding process, Mindset was chosen for its outstanding professional expertise and experiences as evidenced by its portfolio of projects including rigorous research designs and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building initiatives.

Hospitals in Malawi did not have registered dietitians to identify and treat disease-related malnutrition until 2017. The Government of Malawi responded to this urgent need to train and license nutrition experts in its 2010 national nutrition strategy. It teamed up with the United States Agency for International Development

Malawi is one African country that has significantly improved the nutritional status and health of its citizens. For example, stunting decreased by 10% between 2010 and 2016, and vitamin A deficiency dropped from 22% in 2009 to 3.6% in 2016. But the country’s remaining challenges require relevant data about the local diet and its nutrient composition.

Sanele Nkomani, MS, RD is the recipient of 2020 Emerging Dietetic Leader Award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This award recognizes the competence and activities of dietitians, who have made contributions early in their dietetics careers.

A novel study conducted by Srinivasan et al. and published in Economics & Human Biology looks at changes in physical activity patterns, specifically drudgery reduction, and how these changes might affect the energy requirements of both men and women in rural households in Ghana and India. The study, “Drudgery reduction, physical activity and energy requirements in rural livelihoods,” explains that drudgery reduction is the substitution of activities with moderate/vigorous/very vigorous energy intensity with activities that use light energy intensity.