National nutrition strategy (CRECER)

Crecer was a comprehensive national strategy for promoting, facilitating, and executing a set of poverty reduction and social inclusion programs, combining several initiatives to be managed under the guidance of the Prime Minister’s Office. It prioritized programs with strong evidence of likely effectiveness against childhood malnutrition and deprioritized others. The program was focused on spending in the poorest communities and started off in just 200 of the ~1,800 districts before scaling up to ~900 districts by 2011. In 2011, Crecer was adapted into Incluir para Crecer, a program that aimed to improve health and nutrition, while reducing poverty and providing other social services, from infancy through old age.

Literature Review

Multiple studies attributed the greatest reductions in stunting to districts prioritized by the Crecer program.^{1 2  3}

Other researchers, however, believe that social welfare programs were ineffective and did not contribute to the reduction of stunting.⁴

Quantitative Analysis

Not applicable - no proxy variable for analysis.

Qualitative Analysis

Suggested as important by several experts.

Conclusion

Though we could not quantitatively examine Crecer, it was suggested as important by several experts in our policy and program review. Findings from our research support Crecer’s key role in shifting government thinking towards nutrition, food security, and chronic malnutrition, and consolidating initiatives and funding. We thus posit that this streamlining was important for child stunting improvement post-2010 in Peru, and long-term, the effort will have continued value in preventing nutritional deficiencies, especially amongst the poorest.

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