Tackling gender equity, one nutrition TV spot at a time

By Ann Jimerson, Behavior Change Specialist, Alive & Thrive

As the clock ticks to mark the first hour of the baby’s life, a young mother raises her hand to contradict her mother-in-law, who wants to give the baby honey instead of breastmilk. It’s one of my favorite TV spots from Alive & Thrive’s (A&T) program in Bangladesh. Every time I view this TV spot, I feel a surge of emotion when the young mother firmly says, “No, give her to me. I have to breastfeed.”

This young mother surprised viewers by taking control of her baby’s first hour of life.

So it caught me off guard when a participant in the recent SUN Movement Global Gathering questioned the program planners’ decision to portray this young mother standing up to the authority of elders. “Why did you show the mother that way? It’s completely unrealistic. That would never happen,” the participant said.

Scaling up nutrition works: Three strategies for success

JEAN BAKER, project director, ALIVE & THRIVE, FHI 360

Can interventions be delivered at scale to improve nutrition during a child’s critical first two years? That is the question we set out to answer more than six years ago. And now the evidence is in—rapid, large scale increases in infant and young child feeding practices are feasible.