Community Based Growth Promotion (CBGP)

Community Based Growth Promotion (CBGP) is a preventive health and nutrition programme model that actively engages families of children under two and their community in maintaining the adequate growth of young children. For sick children under 5 years old, the programme can extend its treatment and referral services.

CBGP promotes improved child growth with the goals of reducing mild and moderate malnutrition and the severity and duration ofillness. The model centers upon adequate monthly weight gain as a dynamic and visible measure of progress; frequent contact with the family, with weighing and tailored programme action; counseling, tailored to meet family needs, focusing on care-seeking practices and household practices such as young child feeding and immunisation; feedback to the community as a tool for local action; and, disease detection, treatment and referral for all children under 5 through use of a modified IMCI protocol by trained community agents.

In the CBGP approach, interventions for child growth include not only food, but also counseling for social conditions within the family and addressing illnesses. Results show that CBGP has successfully incorporated immunisation and diagnosis and referral of illnesses with the strengthening of efforts to improve child-feeding practices. The approach gives special attention to the organisation and participation of community leaders and members around the theme of child growth, emphasising prevention and local problem solving. A standardised set of processes and tools helps make this a systematised but adaptable programme. Recent results from Honduras, where the approach is called Atencion Integral a la Ninez or AIN, show that participation is high, infant feeding practices have improved, and immunisation and ORT use have increased. In addition to Honduras, BASICS II supports CBGP programmes in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, and Senegal.