LINK-NCA: A new method to understand and analyse local causes of undernutrition and to strengthen nutrition multisectoral response strategies

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LINK-NCA: A new method to understand and analyse local causes of undernutrition and to strengthen nutrition multisectoral response strategies

What is the Link-NCA method?
The Link-NCA method analyse the complex, dynamic, locally-specific causes of undernutrition. Since 2010, Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) and a scientific committee led by a small group of researchers (TUFTS University, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, World Food Program) and technical experts have invested its development in order to strengthen the analytical foundation on which its programs are built. The Link-NCA method is structured and participatory thanks to the inclusion of a community-level qualitative enquiry. The qualitative enquiry illuminates context-specific and community-defined causes of undernutrition while directly integrating local communities early in the process.

Why improved understanding of the causes of undernutrition matters?
Undernutrition is currently one of the most prominent global health issues with 165 million children under-five years of age suffering from stunting. Over the years, the increasing recognition of the importance of nutrition has lead governments and development partners to prioritise nutrition programming. Indeed, a growing number of countries have joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and over 23 billion (US$) in financial commitments were made during the pre-G8 “Nutrition and Growth” event held in June 2013. The SUN framework strongly advocates for the adoption of a multi-sectoral approach, calling for the scale up of two essential complementary approaches: nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive actions. At country level, governments and partners are working to design and implement multisectoral nutrition plans. In this context, a reliable tool such as the Link-NCA, which provides a multi-sectoral overview of factors affecting nutritional status within a given area, may stimulate in-country multi stakeholders’ dialogue and trigger appropriate actions. The lack of a structured method to analyse the causes of undernutrition has further constrained operational agencies from carrying out this type of assessment as part of a typical programme cycle, and has led to results of varying quality. Accordingly, causal analysis at a local level is often too weak, relying more on assumptions rather than evidence.

A project to provide capacity building, guidance and support to undertake Link NCA studies
Fourteen Link-NCA studies have been implemented around the world during the past five years, revealing diverse causes of undernutrition and a variety of causal frameworks for understanding such causes. The Link-NCA project encourages collaboration of stakeholders to develop local multisectoral response strategies to the issue of undernutrition. ACF, International Medical Corps and Concern have joined together, with financial support from OFDA, to support capacity building and promotion of the Link-NCA method.This initiative includes the creation of a Link-NCA Technical Unit for training and technical support and the implementation of Link NCA studies. Link NCA guidelines, technical tools, and study reports are available on the website : www.linknca.org

The Link NCA team has the pleasure to invite you to a webinar on Wednesday 13th May, 9-10am EDT to introduce the method. The webinar will present the rationale and the need to conduct nutrition causal analysis to enhance nutrition programming, introduce the main features and steps of the method,and provide examples of findings of Link NCA studies undertook recently.

The event is co-organized with the Agriculture-Nutrition Community of Practice, and hosted by SPRING.

Please register here : https://jsi.webex.com/jsi/j.php?RGID=r7f842fe6988fbe7629a046d1fd5a4c97

More information :

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Or email us at linknca@actioncontrelafaim.org