Samenvatting

Background:
Roughly 200 million women become pregnant every year - most of them living in developing countries in Asia and Africa - many of these women suffer from ongoing nutritional deficiencies, contributing to the estimate of half a million maternal deaths a year. Educational programs teaching on maternal health and nutrition in developing countries have proven to be key to saving lives. Yet, many existing nutrition programs are not as sustainable and effective as desired. The Birth Attendant School (BAS) at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Paris wanted to address this problem by implementing more in-depth and sustainable nutritional knowledge in their training program to teach to their students in Paris and to be passed on to women in developing countries in Asia and Africa. z

Methods:
The study design used to write this report was a qualitative narrative review. The research group included are Women in Reproductive age (WRA)(15-49 years old) and pregnant women in developing countries in Asia and Africa. Secondary data was collected to obtain information about nutrition and healthy diets for WRA and increased nutritional needs of pregnant women in developing countries in Asia and Africa. In addition, to complement secondary data, primary data was collected conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with two organizations and the leader of the BAS.

Results:
Significant deviations in nutritional advice for WRA and pregnant women amongst the countries of research were observed. Moreover, when desiring to design a sustainable and impactful nutrition program for WRA and pregnant women in developing countries in Asia and Africa, the programs Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W), The Hunger Project and the Green Food Foundation mention that unique historical, religious, social, cultural and economic contexts of food systems need to be taken into account. However, a fully integrated approach as well as a preconceived implementation plan on how and what to teach the community and future teachers in developing nations about nutrition is lacking in the BAS. Moreover, current nutritional teaching is focused on pregnant women only. Additionally, time constraints limit possibilities to deepen nutritional teaching. Conclusion: Background information on the importance of healthy diets and general nutrition recommendations as provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) should be implemented in the nutritional teaching of the BAS. Moreover, the focus should be on establishing local partnerships and working together with NGO’s to provide an integrated approach. Teaching opportunities should actively be sought after and locals should be educated to continue nutritional teaching after outreaches. In addition, striving for gender equality and women empowerment is crucial in every project. However, to reach full impact potential and sustainability of projects in developing nations, the BAS program should be prolonged and outreaches should go to the same project several years in a row.