“Multisector nutrition policy environment” Figure: NIPN’s operational cycle Four Interagency Institutional Mechanisms of NIPN ◊ Project Steering Committee (PSC), is the highest supervisory body headed by Secretary, SID. The first PSC meeting was held on 31 July 2019 at the Statistics and Informatics Division with participants from BBS, HSD, SID, GED, MoA, MoFood, MoF, MoFL, EU, LGD, HKI and BIDS. ◊ Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) , the policy forum is chaired by Chief, GED, Planning Commission and co-chaired by SUN-FP, HSD. The first meeting of the PAC was held on 29 September 2019 and was chaired by Md. Mafidul Islam, Chief, GED, Planning Commission with representatives from key stakeholders (e.g. BBS, GED, FPMU, BNNC, IPHN, MUCH-FAO, SID, HKI and BIDS) and practitioners, officials, academia and researchers from various organizations and development partners. ◊ Technical Committee (TC), chaired by DG, BBS is to guide and facilitate data use and methods. The first TC meeting, chaired by DG, BBS was held on 10 March 2020 with participants from BBS, SID, IPHN, BNNC, FPMU, EU, HKI and BIDS. ◊ Project Management Committee (PMC), chaired by Director, DH wing, BBS is to guide implementation of NIPN. The PMC is comprised of, in addition to the chairperson, ten persons from various ministries and agencies such as BBS, GED, FPMU, BNNC, IPHN and observers from SID, BIDS NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER Volume 01 Issue 01 May 2020 Funded by the European Union , National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN) Bangladesh started its journey in early 2018 and is expected to run through the end of 2021. It is being implemented by Helen Keller International with the support of BIDS in collaboration with BBS/SID, FPMU, BNNC, IPHN and GED. Focus: • Evidence-based policy formulation • Capacity building through training and academic programme NIPN’s theory of change NIPN's Operational Cycle The NIPN operational cycle is supported by the national NIPN structure made up of two elements that constantly revolve and feed into each other: ⇒ Question formulation based on government priorities: Actors within a policy component facilitate a Policy Advisory Committee, playing a key role in policy question formulation, interpretation of the results of data analysis and communication of findings. ⇒ Analysis of data to generate evidence for answering policy questions: Actors within the data component collate multi-sectoral data in a central repository and analyse the data. Assessing published inform ation and analysing existing data Better understanding of the causes of and ways to prevent malnutrition Development and/or refinement of policies and programmes in sectors related to human nutrition Reduction in malnutrition NIPN Bangladesh at a Glance Page 1 Trainings NIPN focal points GED and BNNC participated in GSF organized training on “Leadership Capacity and Functional Skills” in Ethiopia. As stated by one of the participants, this training provided an opportunity for sharing experience and learn from international experts and other countries. NIPN conducted a “Training on use of STATA for data management and analysis” in July 2019 at BBS. A total 25 government officials from BBS, BNNC and FPMU participated in the training. A survey of participants showed that 95% were satisfied with the training due to its effectiveness in their regular activities. Workshop A NIPN launching workshop was held in April 2019 to apprise stakeholders of the NIPN project, its goals, and activities in nutrition governance. Mr. Sadhan Chandra Ma- jumder, MP, Minister, Ministry of Food, Her Excellency, Ms. Rensje Teerink, Ambassador of the European Union to Bangla- desh, Professor Dr. Shamsul Alam, Member (Senior Secretary) GED, Planning Commission and Mr. Md. Ashadul Islam, Secretary, HSD, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, were present in the workshop. Professor Shamsul Alam, Member (Senior Secretary) GED, MoP stated that this national information platform is a holistic way to create awareness on food and nutrition data and its availablity will help policy planners and researcher to better design and implement programmes and policies that will help Bangladesh to eradicate various forms of malnutrition. The Policy mapping report and a Summary of the Evidence report have been presented in workshops and meetings of nutrition stakeholders respectively in July 2019 and March 2020. Both were well attended by Government and non-government stakeholders in the field of nutrition. NIPN Newsletter, May 2020 CD of HKI and DG of BBS at the MoU signing between HKI and BBS 25th PMC meeting chaired by Director, BBS and PMC led by the New Technical Director of NIPN, Dr. Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder after his joining 1st TC meeting chaired by Director General, BBS and led by New Technical Director of NIPN, 1st initiative after his joining STATA training workshop and HKI. A total of 25 PMC meetings were held over 2018 to May 2020. NIPN Bangladesh important milestones A formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between HKI and BBS in January 2019 which set the working modalities for BBS collaboration with NIPN. This facilitated the setting up of the aforementioned committees. The Relationship with the Government ministries and agencies has been positive and supportive. This has been partly reflected in formation of four interagency mechanisms stated earlier. The participation so far in the discussions of PMC and other committees has been another yardstick which reflects how the government is involved in the NIPN process Page 2 NIPN Newsletter, May 2020 Page 3 NIPN focal points (BBS, BNNC, IPHN, FPMU, BIDS, HKI) and others (BIRTAN) took part in a GSF-organized workshop on the implementation of the NIPN operational cycle in October 2019, covering formulation of policy questions and collection and analysis of data to address them. Reports So far two policy related reports have been prepared. One titled “Nutritional Well-being: An Exercise in Understanding the Policy Milieu in Bangladesh”. On the basis of this report, two policy briefs have been prepared. Both are now in process of finalization before being placed to the PAC for endorsement when these will be formally published. The other policy related report is on a systematic review of the evidence-based nutrition research which has examined some 85 peer-reviewed studies on Bangladesh nutrition issues. This is being further extended by a meta-anaylis of some of its findings. NIPN Bangladesh on acceleration Staff Transitions Dr. Md Ruhul Amin Talukder joined as the new Technical Director in March 2020 as Ms. Jillian L. Waid, Technical Director of NIPN left in October 2019. Ms. Tasnuva Wahed joined as the Program and Research Analyst in December 2019. The recruitments for the position for a Research Fellow and another position for Program and Research Analyst are in process. Emergency Work Plan Due to transitions in the NIPN team, there had been some slowdown of activities. To recover the lost momentum, NIPN has formulated and is implementing a 3-month Emergency Work Plan over March-June 2020 endorsed by the PMC and in-house meeting. With clear-cut deliverables and milestones, this plan has resulted in acceleration of NIPN activities. Amid ongoing corona situation, NIPN has conducted two PMC meetings and a number of in-house meetings online. NIPN in-house discussions opened up learning by doing Once a week on each Monday a NIPN in-house discussion meeting takes place to take stock of on-going works including discussion on current and new technical issues as well as administrative and other matters. NIPN staffs and core focal points from BBS, IPHN and BNNC regularly participate in this meeting. Selection of candidates for Masters Fellowship NIPN-HKI invited applications for Masters Fellowship from core stakeholder Ministries/Agencies on 15 March 2020 with an extended deadline of 14 April 2020. With the guidance of PMC and CD-HKI an evaluation committee was formed on 15 April 2020 for the selection of the applicants. Finally, on 26 April 2020 a virtual PMC meeting on skype was held and six candidates were selected based on the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee. NIPN launcing event, April 2019 Policy mapping workshop was chaired by Professor Dr. Nazma Shaheen, INFS, DU and moderated by DG, BNNC GSF workshop led by Global Support Facility team The Policy Mapping report was already circulated in draft form and has been appreciated very well by major stakeholders such as BNNC which expressed its desire to use the findings for its reports under SUN activities. NIPN Newsletter, May 2020 Advisors: Mohammad Tajul Islam, DG, BBS; Aminuzzaman Talukder, Country Director, Helen Keller International Editorial team: Dr. Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder, Dr. M. Asaduzzaman, Md. Mashud Alam, Nigar Sultana, Nibras Ahmed Durlov Published by: National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN) , Bangladesh; 5th Floor, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Porishonkhyan Bhaban, E-27/A, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 For any additional information, contact, Mr Aminuzzaman Talukder, Country Director, HKI at ZTalukder@hki.org and Dr. Md Shah Nawaz, Technical Director, NIPN at SNawaz@hki.org “ The NIPN is funded by the European Union. This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of NIPN - HKI/BIDS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.” Ongoing work Data Mapping Data Mapping of available datasets in Bangladesh is a major activity under NIPN. A common repository will be established with different modules of databases which will be regularly updated as additional data are collected and available in public space. New partners who engage with the NIPN may offer their data sets for inclusion in the repository although this may need validation. A Data Guideline has also been prepared for building data repository which is under consideration of TC’s endorsement. The Technical Committee (TC) has decided that all Government organizations be requested to validate the methods of survey/admin or program data in order to make it part of official statistics as per Statistical Act 2013. Data Analysis on Regional dietary diversity at final stage Regions may vary in their dietary practices and diversity which may be due to several economic and social factors. Such differences in dietary diversity may have impacts on nutritional outcomes. PAC in its last meeting decided that the regional dietary diversity be examined and policy issues clarified. NIPN research is drawing upon HIES 2016 data to find out how dietary patterns vary by region and what factors determine such differences. Results of this analysis will be available soon in the form of a report and corresponding policy brief(s). NIPN has just started working on issues of WASH, home food production as well as VGD impacts on nutrition. Continuing dialogues NIPN regularly takes part in various national and sectoral events around nutrition. It made contributions to the finalization of National Food and Nutrition Security Policy in workshops and also through extensive comments in writing. NIPN participated in BIRTAN’s framework on Nutrition Sensitive Strategy, BNNC’s in house meeting regarding ICT, DNCC and UNCC and the M & E system and IPHN’s partner forum meeting. Even in the ongoing covid-19 pandameic, NIPN is continuing outreach meetings with WFP, MUCH - FAO and others nutrition relevant events. Communication and outreach NIPN has drafted the Communication Strategy and Visibility plan in accordance with EU requirements. It is in the process of finalization. Draft webportal, social media pages have also been drafted and shared for comments of the stakeholders. Upcoming activities ● Data & Analysis: Building data repository; Analysis of VGD impact on nutrition; Climate change & nutrition; WASH and nutrition; Impact of Homestead gardening on nutrition and Covid-19 impacts on nutrition. ● Policy Reports & Policy briefs: Policy gaps; evidence gaps; RDDS ● Frameworks: Finalize data guideline; communication strategy and visibility plan; sustainability plan. ● Training: Long term masters and short-term in-country and foreign training ● Participation in national and international events: Following the work plan ● Visibility: Web-portal; social media pages; workshops; newsletters, leaflets. NIPN participating in other events "Maintain social distancing. Follow the WHO Guideline to prevent Novel Corona Virus (Covid-19)" Government and private stakeh olders can send their nutrition relate d policy question s for analysis/ data analysis request to NIPN if they need. They can send this request by email, by filling a web - based form, and by filling up a hard copy form