Family and community practices that promote child survival, growth, and development : a review of the evidence

This technical review document addresses improvements in family and community practices. It presents the evidence for twelve key practices, identified by UNICEF and WHO to be of key importance in providing good home-care for the child concerning the prevention or treatment of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness conditions, in order to ensure survival, reduce morbidity, and promote healthy growth and development. The paper has three specific objectives. The first is to summarize the evidence available on the potential impact on child survival, growth and development of interventions to improve each of the 12 key family and community practices, and the evidence concerning the feasibility of interventions to improve the key practices. The second is to identify gaps in knowledge that either hamper the assessment of impact, or need to be filled in order to develop effective interventions, and to make recommendations for future research. The third objective is to make recommendations concerning next steps and priority-setting for both programme action and research. The paper is targeted at an audience of health professionals, researchers and policy advisers, and aims to inform policy discussions concerning where investments in this area are best directed, for both programme action and research.