Helen Keller International's Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program in Burkina Faso

Summary

Helen Keller International (HKI) has been implementing homestead food production (HFP) programs in Asia for the past 20 years and has recently begun implementing HFP programs in Africa as well. In general, these programs target women and are designed to improve maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes through three primary pathways: 1. Increasing the availability of micronutrient-rich foods through increased household production of these foods; 2. Raising income through the sale of surplus production; and 3. Increasing knowledge and adoption of optimal nutrition practices, including the consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. Evaluations of HFP programs have consistently demonstrated significant increases in household production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. This increased consumption, along with improvements in health and nutrition related knowledge, and increased income, could all contribute to improvements in maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes. However, to date there has been limited understanding as to how these types of programs can be optimized to maximize impacts on these outcomes.

In order to better understand the potential of these types of programs to improve maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes and how this impact may be achieved IFPRI has been collaborating with HKI to evaluate one of their E-HFP programs in Burkina Faso. The evaluation considers impact of the program through the three pathways above, and assesses anthropometric and clinical measures of nutrition, as well as looking at how the programs might be improved.

Conditions

• Growth
• Anemia

Interventions

OTHER

Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program

Participation in an enhanced-homestead food production program including home gardening and nutrition and health behavior change communication

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  collaborator FED

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• International Food Policy Research Institute

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Deanna K Olney, Ph.D. · International Food Policy Research Institute

• Andrew Dillon, Ph.D. · Michigan Sate University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Months

Max Age

12 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-02-28

Primary Completion

2013-06-30

Completion

2016-09-28

Countries

• United States

Study Locations