Community Capacity Strengthening for Sustainable Behaviour Change Context in Lao PDR

This brief provides an overview of USAID Nurture activities in Laos PDR to strengthen the capacity of communities to promote sustainable behavior changes in integrated nutrition and WASH (iNuW). The adoptions of these iNuW behaviors among target communities helped reduce child malnutrition in Lao PDR, associated with underlying causes such as poor maternal and child healthcare, inadequate access to and consumption of nutritious and diverse food, and unimproved practices of environmental hygiene and sanitation, such as open defecation. The intervention reached 471 villages with nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions and improved knowledge and practices around maternal nutrition, childcare, feeding, and sanitation at household and community levels.