Affordable private sector solutions for healthy villages

The Healthy Village approach creates a healthy living environment for boys and girls: lasting food and nutrition security and WASH behaviour change in the entire community. It supports a nutritious and diverse diet, improved access to nutrition products, improved sanitation, safe drinking water, water for food production, good hygiene practices and products, and essential maternal and childcare.

Mobilising all community stakeholders

Right2Grow mobilises all local stakeholders from caregivers to local leaders to entrepreneurs towards the same goal: safeguarding a child’s right to grow up healthy. This builds on community mobilisation approaches of different Right2Grow partners such as the SDG village and epicenter approach of The Hunger Project and the Healthy Village approach of Max Foundation.

Engaging entrepreneurs for affordable local solutions

Key to the Healthy Village approach is a focus on empowering entrepreneurs who could supply affordable and long-lasting products which meet the needs of the community. Private sector at all levels are engaged to lobby government for favourable business conditions for hygiene and nutrition products and services. This includes access to financing, uniform quality standards, and expansion of safety net programmes. Profitable businesses that meet community needs will continue to thrive long after the programme interventions have ended. Ownership of all activities is then handed over to local stakeholders to ensure the continuity.

Entrepreneurs could supply affordable and long-lasting products which meet the needs of the community

Community will voice their needs!

Communities and households, aware of what is needed to tackle undernutrition, demand better nutrition, WASH and health services and products, both from government and private sector. Aggregated child growth data from Health Villages can also be used to influence national level policies and programmes, and to lobby for adequate investment in tackling undernutrition. Peer learning is important, to look at what works and what needs to change for tackling undernutrition. In Bangladesh, local government officially designates the villages as ‘Healthy’, and learnings are disseminated via civil society networks and the government’s Horizontal Learning Programme to sub-district, district and national level, to align with government commitments to nutrition and WASH.

Right2Grow promotes and studies healthy villages

In Bangladesh and Ethiopia, Right2Grow partner Max Foundation uses the Healthy Village approach to support communities to demand and invest in basic social services and adopt good nutrition and WASH practices and to address barriers with private sector partners. Right2Grow will also research and document the Healthy Village approach for local and national level advocacy by communities, civil society organisations, and local government for increased resources to community-led, integrated approaches for better nutrition and WASH.