Nutrition programs improve food security for women in Bangladesh

The European Union and UNICEF implemented nutrition-sensitive interventions for vulnerable women in the host communities of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, starting in 2021.

These programs combined income-generating activities, such as tailoring and backyard poultry rearing, with asset transfers, direct cash support, and nutrition education. Researchers analyzed data from 1,255 women across four upazilas, which are administrative sub-districts, during two survey rounds in 2022 and 2024.

The study used propensity score weighting to compare outcomes between groups that received the interventions and those that did not. The results showed that vulnerable women had a 53% higher likelihood of household food security in 2024 compared to 2022. Additionally, the likelihood of these women having adequate dietary diversity increased more than two and a half times during the same period.

The authors note that because the study used repeated cross-sectional surveys, they cannot rule out other time-varying factors as causes for these improvements. They suggest that future longitudinal evaluations are necessary to confirm the long-term causal effects of the programs.