Dissemination event highlights AMAN project successes in Cox’s Bazar

Since 2022, Nutrition International in Bangladesh has implemented the 'Adopting a Multisectoral Approach for Nutrition' (AMAN) project in Cox Bazar.

Today, the project organized a learning and sharing dissemination event in Dhaka, celebrating its milestone achievements and good practices. The project supported 1.8 million adolescent girls and boys, women, men, and children in Cox's Bazar to get nutrition services.

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, is among the poorest districts of Bangladesh, with 32.7% of people living below the poverty line. With 29% of children underweight and 36% of children under five years stunted, the prevalence of malnutrition among children is high. 38% of pregnant women, while 40% of adolescent girls and boys have anaemia. With the overall goal of supporting the Government of Bangladesh to improve the health and well-being of the hard-to-reach people living in vulnerable situations in Cox's Bazar, the AMAN project introduced a multisectoral approach to nutrition action.  

The AMAN project, supported by the Government of Canada, successfully strengthened nutrition services delivered through the health system, social safety net programs, and multisectoral nutrition actions. The project supported eight priority ministries in Cox's Bazar, including the Ministries of Health, Food, Women and Children Affairs, Social Welfare, Livestock, Fisheries, Agriculture, Public Health & Engineering and Education in building a gender-responsive Multisectoral Minimum Nutrition Package (MMNP). This enabled the district and upazila coordination committees to plan, budget, implement and monitor annual gender-responsive multisectoral nutrition action plans. The project also improved the reach and quality of the Vulnerable Women Benefit Programme and Food Friendly Program by establishing links with essential nutrition and gender-based violence support services.

The Director General of the Department of Women Affairs and the special guest, Keya Khan, at the event congratulated Nutrition International and all the partners associated with the project's implementation. They said, "Coordination among various government departments must be strengthened to improve people's nutritional standards, as seen in the AMAN project. The budget for ongoing programs should be utilised more efficiently." Nutrition International organised the AMAN Project dissemination event on 25 February 2025 at Hotel Westin.

The Director General of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council, along with the Line Director of National Nutrition Services, senior government officials, and development sector leaders, participated in panel discussions on strengthening the health system, implementing a multisectoral approach to nutrition, and enhancing gender—and nutrition-responsive social security programs.

The AMAN project improved nutrition outcomes for 164,364 pregnant and lactating women in Cox's Bazar by providing them access to antenatal care, nutrition education, micronutrient supplementation and counselling. It reached 570,123 children under five years of age with essential newborn and childcare services, including early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding, vitamin A supplementation, treatment of diarrhoea with zinc supplements and low-osmolarity oral rehydration salts. It reached 123,040 adolescent girls, who were ensured regular consumption of Weekly Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS) at the secondary school level.

"The AMAN project was conceptualised with the vision to advance nutrition by taking a no-missed-opportunities approach. This meant integrating nutrition into eight priority ministries' action plans and supporting the smooth implementation of multisectoral nutrition interventions.  Improving nutrition cannot be achieved by the health sector alone," said Saiqa Siraj, Country Director of Nutrition International in Bangladesh. She added, "We hope that learnings and good practices from AMAN will pave the way for adaptation of the multisectoral approach to nutrition at the national and subnational level as well."

The learning and sharing dissemination event was attended by dignitaries from different government departments associated with the implementation of this project, donors, beneficiaries, frontline workers, implementing partners, etc., sharing their learnings, experiences and insights. The dissemination event also included discussions on the way forward, exploring strategies for the sustainability of the AMAN project and policy integration for scaling up to other parts of the country.