1. Introduction and background
micro-nutrient deficiencies
OVERNUTRITION, UNDERNUTRITION, MALNUTRITION
Supporting food and nutrition security is undoubtedly the first and foremost strategy to ensure access to safe, acceptable and adequate sources of food (Lesotho is a small mountainous country with a population of 2.2 million people. It is considered to be one of the world's least developed and poorest countries, with half of the population living in poverty and many exposed to high levels of food insecurity (.evious studies in Lesotho have shown that Basotho women lack nutrition-related knowledge and that their dietary intake is largely inadequate. As a result, their nutritional status is challenged and they present with high levels of malnutrition, including both undernutrition, overnutrition, and micro-nutrient deficiencies (Theories of health behavior have popularly been used in health education and promotion interventions (Self-efficacy, derived from Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (Locus of control is the personal control that people feel toward health. It is either internal or external. An internal locus of control means that a person believes that they can influence their health, while external locus of control means that an individual believes that their health is in the hands of others (The bases for using self-efficacy and locus of control as framework theories for the current nutrition education intervention was largely influenced by the assertion that for an individual to change their dietary and other health behaviors, they need the motivation to want to change. The most effective method of raising motivation to change is restoring self-esteem and self-efficacy and developing an internal locus of control (Given the above, the present study aimed to determine the impact of a nutrition education intervention, framed on improving self-efficacy and internal locus of control, on the nutrition-related behavior of Basotho women. To our knowledge, no systematically designed nutrition education intervention programmes that are relevant to the unique situation of women in Lesotho have previously been implemented.