Applying the Common Approach: Resourcing families for better nutrition in humanitarian responses, cross-country learning report

From 2021 to 2022, Save the Children implemented ‘Cash + for Nutrition’ in programming in three countries at risk of famine: Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Yemen. With funding from Save the Children Italy and technical support from Save the Children UK and the consulting firm InformEd International, these Country Offices used the Resourcing Families for Better Nutrition (RF4BN) Common Approach to reduce maternal and child undernutrition. The RF4BN programmes combined cash transfers, Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) and other nutrition interventions. In some cases, a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) component was added. The focus was on acute malnutrition, targeting families that were either at risk of acute malnutrition or that had acutely malnourished women and/or infants.

This report consolidates the findings of this initiative to inform future RF4BN projects in humanitarian contexts. Most of the evidence and learning documented in this report relates to the programmes in South Sudan and Yemen, which received direct support from InformEd International in the baseline and endline surveys as well as the PDM. Learning on the experience and programme in Afghanistan and findings around its outcomes can be found in the case study written by Tripaldi (2022) and in the baseline-endline survey report produced by the Afghanistan Country Office (Sinwari, 2022).