Stunting has remained the nutrition condition of public health concern affecting one in three children under the five years Zimbabwe. Causes of stunting are multiple and poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices are among the top factors associated with stunting. IYCF indicators in Zimbabwe are not performing very well with 61% of children 0 to 5 months being exclusively breastfed, and only 7% of children 6 to 23 months receiving minimum acceptable diet (MAD). The care group approach been piloted in 5 districts to promote and influence behaviour change towards uptake of optimal IYCF practices. The paper assesses progress made in the implementation of the approach after six months of implementation. Results show that implementation of the care group approach, with appropriate coordination structures at community level, yields considerable improvement in health, IYCF, and water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) behaviours and practices. Community level initiatives like income generating activities, food production, and cooking demonstrations are proving to be the sustainability pillars for the care group approach. Conclusively, with proper leadership and coordination, care groups help to affect behaviour change in improving the health, nutrition and caring practices for children.

Background: In Zimbabwe, 26.2 percent of children under five are stunted. Evidence has shown that multi-sector interventions are key to addressing stunting. Yet, practical implementation is difficult, often occurring through separate disjointed and uncoordinated sector actions with limited access to real time information for decision-making. Objective: To describe the design, implementation, successes, challenges and lessons learned from using a near-real time monitoring (NRTM) system as a monitoring tool for multi-sectoral community based model for stunting reduction in Zimbabwe. Methods: An open source technology was used to obtain the information needed on the multi-sectoral coordination process, provide a common platform to capture and present data on situational factors, community conditions and practices to be acted upon and thus contribute to reducing stunting. Results: Significant improvements in community data flows were noted; the system brought together several types of data, concepts, stakeholders and multi-sector energies into focused programming. Several challenges including conceptual issues, initial coordination, financial resources and missed partnership opportunities were documented. The introduction of the NRTM system resulted in improved data flows for programme monitoring and facilitated multi-sector collaboration. Conclusion: NRTM is an effective monitoring tool for the multi-sectoral community based model to reduce stunting in Zimbabwe.