Objective: To summarise available evidence on the nutritional status of school-age children and adolescents (5–19 years) from seven global regions and on interventions implemented to improve malnutrition in this population.Setting: Global.Design: Findings were compiled from seven scoping literature reviews, including data from low- and middle-income countries within the following UNICEF-defined global regions: East Asia and Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; South Asia; West and Central Africa; Eastern and Southern Africa; Middle East and North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.Results: A double burden of malnutrition was evident across the world regions reviewed: stunting, thinness, anaemia and other micronutrient deficiencies persisted, alongside rising overweight and obesity prevalence. Transitions towards diets increasingly high in energy-dense, processed and micronutrient-poor foods were observed. Evidence from intervention studies was limited, but suggested that providing multiple micronutrient-fortified foods or beverages at school may effectively target micronutrient deficiencies and facilitate weight gain in undernourished populations. Interventions to prevent or manage overweight and obesity were even more limited. There was minimal evidence of using novel technological approaches to engage school-age children and adolescents, or of involving them in designing interventions.Conclusion: The limited data available on nutrition of school-age children and adolescents are neither standardised nor comparable. Consensus on methods for assessing nutritional status and its determinants for this age group is urgently needed to set targets and monitor progress. Additionally, strategies are required to ensure that nutritious, safe and sustainable diets are available, affordable and appealing.

Women’s nutrition has been highlighted as a global priority to ensure the health and well-being of both them and future generations. This systematic review summarises the available literature on the integration of nutrition services for girls and women of reproductive age (GWRA) into existing public health systems across low- and middle-income countries, as well as any barriers to integration. We searched PubMed and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for articles published since 2011 according to eligibility criteria. A total of 69 articles were included. Evidence suggested that several services for GWRA are well integrated into public health systems, including antenatal care services, nutrition education and counselling, and micronutrient supplementation programmes. However, there was limited evidence on the integration of family planning, adolescent health, and reproductive health services. Barriers to integration fell into five main themes: lack of training and capacity building, poor multisectoral linkages and coordination, weak advocacy, lack of M&E systems, and inequity. We identified a lack of evidence and services for non-pregnant GWRA and for women postpartum. Addressing barriers to integration and gaps in nutrition services for GWRA would increase service coverage and contribute to improving health outcomes for GWRA and future generations.

Aims: This review aims to summarize available literature on the nutritional status of school-age children (SAC) and adolescents aged 5-19 years in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and interventions aiming to tackle malnutrition in this age group. Methods: We searched Pubmed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science, Africa Wide Information, ArticleFirst, Biomed Central, BioOne, BIOSIS, CINAHL, EBSCOHost, JSTOR, ProQuest, Google Scholar, SAGE Reference Online, Scopus, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley Online for articles published between 2005 and 2020 according to eligibility criteria. Results: A total of 129 articles were included, with the majority of studies presenting data from Ethiopia (N = 46) and South Africa (N=38). The prevalence of overweight and obesity ranged between 9.1 – 32.3 % and 0.8 – 21.7 % respectively across countries in ESA. Prevalence of thinness, stunting and underweight ranged as follows: 3.0 – 36.8 %; 6.6 – 57.0 %; 5.8 – 27.1 %. Prevalence of anemia was between 13.0 – 76.9 % across the region. There was a dearth of data on other micronutrient deficiencies. There was limited evidence from intervention studies (N = 6), with half of the interventions targeting anemia or iron deficiency using iron supplementation or fortification methods and reporting no significant effect on anemia prevalence. Interventions targeting stunting and thinness (N = 3) reported beneficial effects of providing vitamin A fortified maize, iron supplementation and nutrition education. Conclusions: A triple burden of malnutrition underlines the need to prioritize implementation of double-duty interventions for SAC and adolescents in ESA. Key data gaps included either limited or a lack of data for the majority of countries, especially on micronutrient deficiencies and a scarcity of intervention studies. Greater investment in nutrition research amongst this population is needed to strengthen the evidence base and inform policies and programs to improve nutritional status amongst SAC and adolescents in ESA.Keywords. Adolescence, overnutrition, undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, Interventions.