SCALING

Sustainable Change Achieved through Linking Improved Nutrition and Governance (SCALING) is a multi-sector Nutrition project funded by the European Union (EU) as part of the Partnership for Improved Nutrition in Lao PDR (PIN). The overall Outcome of SCALING is to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and children under 5 in 14 target districts in the provinces of Huaphanh, Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang and Phongsaly in northern Laos.

The action supports the Government of Laos (GoL) to implement at scale the National Nutrition Strategy (NNS), National Plan of Action on Nutrition (NPAN) and convergence approach. The project covers the period December 2017 to June 2022 (54 months).

SCALING is implemented by a consortium of four INGOs: CARE, Comité de Coopération avec le Laos (CCL), ChildFund Laos (CFL) and Save the Children (SCI) as the lead.

Outcome/Component 1 is aiming to achieve behavior change at community level with a main focus on the so-called 1,000-day households. It also aims to change the behavior on personal hygiene and sanitation, gender, reproductive health and nutritious food among adolescent girls and boys in selected Lower Secondary Schools in the project areas. Another focus under this component is to increase the access to quality Nutrition and Reproductive, Newborn, Maternal, Child Health (RNMCH) in Health Centers and through mobile outreach services to more remote villages.

Outcome/Component 2 addresses environmental factors affecting nutrition. It aims to increase the role of women in decision-making, reduce their workload and increase their control over resources and health. This component also aims to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in the villages and access to and use of nutritious foods.

Outcome/Component 3 aims to strengthen the coordination on nutrition among the relevant government sectors and ensure that the provinces and districts have a common understanding on relevant national government policies and strategies. This component also supports the target villages to complete and monitor the implementation of nutrition sensitive Village Development Plans.

The four SCALING Consortium partners highly welcome the use of the various tools and materials developed under SCALING in other projects and by other organisations. However, before reproduction and reprinting, please remove the EU and other SCALING logos and include the following disclaimer: “This ….. was developed under the SCALING project (2017-2022) supported by the European Union”. Please do not hesitate to adapt the content to your local context.

For additional information on the Gender tools applied, please contact the Gender team at CARE at Lao.info@careint.org.

For general questions and comments and additional information on the other interventions, please contact: communications.laos@savethechildren.org.

Gertjan van Bruchem, SCALING Project Director, 26 March 2022