Research

Generating Evidence to Scale What Works

Despite the existence of proven and cost-effective interventions to address malnutrition, implementation at scale remains minimal. To encourage scale-up of effective interventions, the Eleanor Crook Foundation partners with world-renowned multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, and other partners to conduct implementation research through our RISE for Nutrition portfolio and other investments.

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ECF is exclusively focused on undernutrition. We invest in a diverse range of technical areas to generate critical evidence regarding the scale up of preventative and treatment interventions. We predominantly support on-the-ground research in Sub-Saharan Africa and have had a long-standing, though not exclusive focus, on East Africa.

ECF also supports critically needed leadership and consensus building at global-level institutions around key research questions and priorities. Through investments in technical convenings, evidence synthesis, and coalition-building among nutrition donors, researchers, practitioners and UN agencies, ECF aims to create enabling environments for the scale-up of high impact nutrition interventions.

ECF’s Pathway to Scale Consists of Three Stages

Theories of Scale and Sustainability (pdf)

Stage 3

Catalyzing Scale-up

Stage 2

Testing results in multiple contexts

Stage 1

establishing effectiveness
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© UNICEF

Through RISE, ECF supports innovative approaches to improving nutrition outcomes at scale.

ECF’s RISE for Nutrition portfolio is a subset of the Foundation’s investment portfolio. All ECF RISE projects include considerations of scale during design, build on country-level priorities and systems, and involve key local actors in order to ensure buy-in and support at all stages of implementation research.

 

Highlights from ECF’s Research Portfolio

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Rise IRC study shows simplified wasting protocol to be effective

ECF provided funding for the IRC to investigate the impact of low-literate community health workers (CHWs) treating uncomplicated cases of severe acute malnutrition in South Sudan using a simplified treatment protocol. IRC then led a coalition of NGOs to pilot the treatment approach in Malawi, Nigeria, and Kenya with success.
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Research ECF supports ENN as Thought Leader on Nutrition Issues

Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) and ECF entered into a three-year strategic grant from 2020-2023 that supports ENN to continue to serve as a thought leader in the global nutrition community. ENN will develop educational materials for technical and non-technical communities as well as lead discussions on critical matters for the global nutrition community.
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Research What does it take to achieve scale in the nutrition sector?

In coordination with Devex, ECF produced a series on scaling nutrition. In this series, leaders in the nutrition sector discuss what it takes to achieve scale and debate the steps the sector needs to take to achieve impact.
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Research Insights on successfully designing for scale from scaling expert, Larry Cooley

As part of the Devex series of scaling nutrition, experts from the field unpack some of the nuances and complexities of systematic scaling nutrition interventions. Watch this short video about some of the common challenges and best practices when scaling up programs.

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