Bangladesh Initiative to Enhance Nutrition Security and Governance (BIeNGS) Project is a multisector nutrition project aiming at improving maternal and child nutrition of nutritionally vulnerable families in Jamalpur and Sherpur districts and strengthening health and nutrition service delivery systems through pro-poor governance model. The project aligns with the constitutional commitments of the Government of Bangladesh to provide adequate nutrition as a basic human right, delivered through the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council’s National Plan of Action on Nutrition II (NPAN2).
In 5 Years the project helped:
The project implemented the approaches to bring better nutrition outcomes for nutritionally vulnerable communities.
Comprehensive Approach: Multiple approaches (Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF), Timed and Targeted Counselling (ttC), Positive Deviance Hearth, Cooking and Feeding Demonstration were implemented to improve awareness on health and nutrition, behavior change on health and hygiene practices among mothers and caregivers and adolescents.
Community Clinic-a primary institution at community door step: Under public-private partnership, this is a primary institution to offer quality primary healthcare without financial hardship, at the door step of community. Community engagement and ownership is spirited to offer quality health, family planning and nutrition services to accelerate universal health coverage.
Adolescent Club – Agency for Social Change: Adolescents developed and empowered as an Agent for Change in a supportive environment of family and society.
IPT by Adolescents Groups for Sustainable mass community awareness: Explored and nurtured immense potentials of adolescents to shape up their own lives and so as for their families and societies. 21 Trained Interactive Popular Theater (IPT) Groups performing shows in the community on nutrition sensitive and specific mass awareness.
Adolescents obtained skills to perform in a greater sphere of life, explore opportunities to become a star of their own life.
Social Inclusion – support person with disabilities for better life: Integrating social protection and nutrition interventions can help support the development of human capital and well-being. Listing of people with disability done - oriented and supported the Union Parishad members to improve the targeting and distribution of social protection schemes and ensure access to a nutritious diet to the most vulnerable segment of population.
MenCare embeded with Producer Group: A gender transformative approach helped couples to transform the environment and increase agency for women and children to achieve diet diversity, worked alongside health, nutrition, and agriculture activities. Provided learning sessions (on equitable and non-violent family relationships, fatherhood, and caregiving practices, women’s participation in household-level nutrition and income-related decision-making) to couples- became change-maker families, helping to sensitize others, disseminating their learning, and influencing wider community changes.
Community Sales Agents – progress towards gender equitable agriculture: Women agri-entrepreneurship - with an aim to acknowledge the contribution of women in agricultural work and leverage adequate support (training and provide agri – inputs, market linkage) for them to build their position in family as well as in community. This leads to economic empowerment of women and direct contribution to better nutrition outcomes for the family.
Promotion of bio-fortified crops: Bio-fortification has been proven to be a strong alternative in the combat of hidden hunger all over the world. To boost and root bio-fortified crop adoption among producers and consumers, mainstreaming of Bio-fortification is needed in crop development, seed multiplication and delivery food crops with public and private sectors. BIeNGS project contributed to address micro-nutritent deficiency through bio-fortification of rice (Zinc rice), a staple crop. Collaborative works done with public sector, private sector, and nongovernmental partners to multiply and distribute seed, educate farmers on the benefits of zinc rice, and promote wider adoption and consumption of the crop through public awareness campaigns. Inclusion of bio-fortified rice in social safety net programs created another market for this specialized crop.
Multi-Sectoral Approach Towards Better Nutrition Outcomes: Being part of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) Programme, BIeNGS has been instrumental in improving maternal and child nutrition in 6 most nutritionally vulnerable Upazilas of Jamalpur and Sherpur Districts, putting in place sustainable and replicable solutions to deliver better nutrition services and better nutrition governance systems at sub-national level. Through technical collaboration with Bangladesh National Nutrition Councel (BNNC) BIeNGS supported in development of District Annual Nutirion Plan ( for Sherpur and Jamalpur) to promote a multi-sectoral response to malnutrition and the operationalization of the nutrition governance system, which are both at the core of the National Nutrition Policy (NNP, 2015) and the National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN 2, 2016-2025).
Smart Nutrition Model Village: This pilot initiative, led by Multi-Sectoral Platform (DNCC and UNCC) and facilitated under BIeNGS project, is a practical demonstration of integration of nutrition sensitive activities those are piloted in the District Annual Nutrition Plan.
Achievements from implementation:
224 Community Clinics supported to improve services
23,962 Pregnant Women received Antenantal Care and 11,302 Lactating Women received Postnatal Care
69,656 Pregnant and Lactating Women and 47,470 Adolescent girls received IFA Tablets
77,626 U5 Children received treatment
15,000 Couples under Producer Groups attended MenCare sessions
24000 members of 960 Producer Groups practiced Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture
15,870 Adolescent girls of 672 Adolescent Clubs attended learning sessions by Peer Educators and Community Nutrition Promoters
720 Members of 36 School Taskforce promoted nutrition and WASH education
63,751 Farmers produced biofortified crops (rice 62,001, wheat 1,550 and lentil 200)
600 Community Learning Plots established
48,174 Community people watched Interactive Popular Theatre shows performed by Adolescent Groups
9,892 Extreme poor women received 2 goatlings each
2 District and 12 Sub-district Annual Nutrition Plans developed and executed
2 DNCC and 6 UNCC Strengthened Multi-Sectoral Platform
3 Smart Model Nutrition Village demonstrated under Sherpur Sadar Upazila