Protecting Nutrition of Pregnant and Lactating Women and Children in Acute Food Crises

This briefing sheet provides an overview of methods and findings from a study examing the impact of cash and voucher assistance on prevention of acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women and children in the context of the 2017/18 Somalia food crisis. Changes in diet and acute malnutrition were measured over a four-month period among pregnant and lactating women and children age 6 to 59 months from households receiving household transfers delivered either as food vouchers or a mix of in-kind food, vouchers, and cash. A non-assistance comparison group was also included. Baseline to endline change in dietary diversity, meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, mid-upper arm circumference, and acute malnutrition were compared using difference-in-difference analysis with inverse probability weighting to account for the non-randomized study design.