Co‐Coverage of Social Protection Programs and Maternal and Child Nutrition Interventions in Bangladesh, India and Nepal

Social protection programs (SPPs) are commonly used in South Asia to address inequities in meeting basic needs. Provision of both SPP benefits and essential health/nutrition interventions to mothers and children is a goal toward optimal health and development outcomes, but co-coverage of SPPs and health/nutrition interventions among beneficiary households is poorly described. Using six population-based surveys in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal (n = 253,703 women with children under 5 years of age), we examined data availability for SPPs (food and cash transfers) and health/nutrition interventions, and estimated their coverage and co-coverage during a woman's last pregnancy (interventions: take-home food rations plus at least four antenatal care visits, receipt of iron-folic acid tablets, deworming, and tetanus injections), after delivery (cash benefit plus the interventions above), and in children (take-home ration for the child plus vitamin A supplementation, deworming, iron syrup, growth monitoring, and nutrition counseling). In India, 52% and 51% of women and children, respectively, received food transfers, but only 3% and 8% received food plus all health/nutrition interventions. In India and Nepal, respectively, cash after delivery was received by 41% and 86% of women, but only 4% and 22% received cash after delivery plus all health/nutrition interventions. There were insufficient data to estimate co-coverage in Bangladesh, which only had data on cash/food transfers but not on health/nutrition interventions. Our findings highlight the need for data on both SPP and health/nutrition intervention coverage in household surveys to be able to estimate co-coverage. Estimates of co-coverage help identify missed opportunities to reach women and children with interventions across multiple sectors.