Support to Strategies to Reduce Chronic Malnutrition and Promote Early Childhood Development in Ecuador

implementation

The objective of this Technical Cooperation (TC) is to support the Government of Ecuador in the design, implementation and/or monitoring of strategies aimed at improving the nutritional status and early childhood development (ECD) outcomes of children under 5 years-of-age in the country, thus improving their wellbeing. In doing so, this TC will fund activities to (i) support the intersectoral coordination role of the Technical Secretariat Ecuador Grows without Chronic Malnutrition (Secretaría Técnica Ecuador Crece Sin Desnutrición, or Technical Secretariat hereafter); (ii) develop a comprehensive behavioral change strategy that promotes best infant and young children feeding practices among vulnerable populations served by the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud Pública, MSP) and the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (Ministerio de Inclusión Económica y Social, MIES) and monitor its progress; and (iii) design and implement a module to collect ECD outcomes as part of the 2022 National Survey of Child Malnutrition (Encuesta Nacional de Desnutrición Infantil, ENDI), collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, INEC) and institutionalize the collection of developmental data alongside that of data on children's health and nutritional status since all three are essential and integral components of children's wellbeing.