Building a rights-based approach to nutrition of women and children: Harnessing the potential of women’s groups and rights-based organizations in South Asia

Monica Shrivastav, PopulationCouncil Consulting
Vani Sethi, UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia
Avishek Hazra, PopulationCouncil Consulting
Zivai Murira, UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia
Roopal Singh, Population Council Institute
Krishna Wagh, Population Council Insitute
Anuradha Nair, UNICEF ROSA
Veronica Njikho, UNICEF ROSA
Sapna Desai, Population Council Insitute

Women face numerous gender-based barriers that hinder their access to resources, nutritious foods, nutrition services, and maternity entitlements. Evidence shows that certain types of women’s groups can improve women’s access to resources and social capital and in some approaches also improve health and nutrition outcomes. Women’s rights-based organizations in South Asia have a longstanding tradition of collective action towards gender equality. Women’s rights-based organizations work in areas such as microfinance, livelihoods, women’s rights, health, and combating violence against women. We explore how women’s groups and rights-based organizations can leverage their collective strength to advance nutrition outcomes for women and children. We identify seven pathways implemented through women’s groups towards improving nutrition outcomes. These pathways include (i) income generation, (ii) agriculture, (iii) health and nutrition behavior change communication and participatory learning and action, (iv) advocating for rights to better health and social services, (v) food access, (vi) cash transfers, and (vii) strengthening service delivery and fostering convergence with health systems. We also note that women’s groups have the potential to implement integrated interventions through combined food-systems-rights pathways. Investing in this area can support transforming nutrition policy from a service delivery model to a rights-based approach.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Qualitative data/methods/approaches, Population and Development, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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