Mobilization for nutrition in Tanzania.

The authors describe the application of a community-based approach to addressing the problem of poor nutrition. The conceptual framework of the program attributed malnutrition to a complex array of situations. Once these situations were analyzed and understood locally practical community-based actions ensued and a measurable change in undernutrition occurred. The antecedents planning and implementation of the program in the Iringa region of Tanzania and its expansion to other districts in the country and beyond are described. The paper concludes with an analysis of the factors which made Iringa a success and transformed it from a single field nutrition project to a large movement in development which used nutrition as an indicator of developmental progress.