Other
Effectiveness of Multisectoral Coordination in Addressing Child Nutrition Outcomes: A Scoping Review
KIRO ANTONIA AGNES, Kristin Hadfield ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a scoping review protocol examining how multisectoral coordination—bringing together health, agriculture, education, water, and social protection sectors—affects child nutrition outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The review will map evidence on coordination mechanisms and their impact on nutrition indicators like stunting, wasting, and dietary diversity. The authors note that while multisectoral approaches are promoted, fragmented sector work and weak governance structures often limit their success.
Key points
- Childhood malnutrition remains persistent despite sectoral investments, partly due to siloed approaches
- Multisectoral coordination can improve service delivery, resource alignment, and policy coherence
- Implementation challenges include weak governance structures, unclear roles, limited accountability, and inadequate financing
- The review will examine outcomes including stunting, wasting, underweight, dietary diversity, and micronutrient status
- Evidence on multisectoral coordination effectiveness for child nutrition remains scattered
Limitations
This is a protocol for a scoping review, not the review itself, so no findings on effectiveness are yet presented. The document does not provide evidence on which specific coordination mechanisms work or which nutrition outcomes improve under different conditions.
Abstract
Childhood malnutrition remains a persistent global challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite investments across health, agriculture, education, WASH, and social protection sectors, progress has been limited due to fragmented, siloed approaches. Multisectoral coordination has been widely promoted as a strategy to address the complex determinants of child nutrition , yet evidence on its effectiveness, implementation processes, and contextual enablers remains scattered. Existing literature highlights that multisectoral coordination can improve service delivery, resource alignment, and policy coherence but challenges such as weak governance structures, unclear roles, limited accountability, and inadequate financing often undermine its success. This scoping review will systematically map the evidence on multisectoral coordination for child nutrition, focusing on coordination mechanisms, outcomes, and influencing factors. The primary question guiding the review is What is the effectiveness of multisectoral coordination in improving child nutrition outcomes? The outcomes of interest will include child nutrition indicators directly linked to multisectoral coordination efforts, such as stunting, wasting, underweight, dietary diversity, and micronutrient status, measured using standardised indicators.