The Unmet Needs

Millions of dollars have, and continue, to be invested in implementing nutrition interventions and programs. The effectiveness of these efforts is inconsistent, however, and the intended impact on outcomes unrealized. Increasingly, researchers and implementers are turning to implementation science to advance their understanding of how nutrition actions work in real-world settings. There is an existing body of theories, models, frameworks, methods and resources to facilitate these efforts, and a growing collection of examples of how implementation science has been successfully applied to inform and strengthen nutrition program delivery. But…

• Implementation science activities remain fragmented, not consistently applied across and within programs, and often initiated in response to poor implementation rather than as part of planning and ongoing implementation.
• Implementers lack guidance and support on how to apply implementation science theories, models, frameworks, and methods to nutrition actions, and how to tailor and adapt implementation strategies to their unique context, specific needs of their organization, and type of nutrition action.
• Academic researchers often fail to fully engage implementers in planning implementation research, leading to research questions and findings that do not reflect the needs of real-world program implementers.
• Program implementers working within similar contexts often face similar constraints and obstacles but lack mechanisms for shared problem solving or support.
• Implementation lessons and research findings are infrequently shared across stakeholder levels. Consequently, higher-level decision-makers (i.e., policymakers and donors) have insufficient understanding of the complexity of the implementation process, and community-level implementers are unaware of data, tools, and resources that would support and improve their work.
• Program implementers lack the funding, communications skills, and technical support required to disseminate their findings to external audiences (e.g., journal articles, webinars), resulting in frequently missed opportunities to advance the field of implementation science in nutrition and to improve implementation.

How do we address these unmet needs?

There is an urgent call for …

1. Stronger linkages and effective communication between all stakeholders and levels of implementation
2. Implementation research activities embedded within programs
3. Adequate training and expertise to apply implementation science and research in LMICs
4. Effective translation, dissemination, and exchange of information at all levels (especially locally).

It is time for collective action to address these unmet needs.