market based solutions

What can be done to support the consumption of more healthy food products by the poorest people in low- and middle-income countries, the people at the so-called “Bottom of the Pyramid” (BoP)? That is an urgent challenge, given the fact that globally 155 million children are still stunted, 52 million children are wasted, and 2 billion people lack key nutrients like iron and vitamin A. On October 4, 2018, BoPInc facilitated a workshop and provided participants with updates on nutrition approaches and “wacky” solutions like Lucky Iron Fish. »

This research analysed whether higher levels of farm production diversity contribute to improved diets in smallholder farm households. Different indicators are used and compared to better understand the underlying linkages.  »

This paper by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) gives best practises in exploring market-based solutions for improved input supply. The lessons out of this paper can help donors and policy makers increase the impact of their input support programs. To define these lessons, practitioners managing input-related projects from SNV and KIT, came together at a workshop in Johannesburg in December 2014. »

This report shows findings from Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania on how and where value chains and markets might be made more nutrition sensitive and improve access to nutritious foods for the poorest and most vulnerable communities show that markets face many challenges in bringing nutritious foods to the poorest and most vulnerable. To effectively reach poor people, nutritious food must be affordable, available in the market, safe, and must contain the nutrients which it claims to have. Ensuring that nutritious food can reach the most vulnerable cannot be addressed by an individual business or value chain, but rather must be addressed through influencing the market system more broadly. »

This paper elaborates on how value chains can contribute to improved nutrition outcomes. Value chain approaches can provide useful frameworks to examine the food system and have the potential to achieve improved nutritional outcomes by leveraging market-based systems. However, understanding the links between value chains, the overall business environment in which they operate, and nutrition among targeted populations is complex. »

Successful innovations that are emerging in developing countries often do not scale up and keep operating at low levels of scale. Harvey Koh, Nidhi Hegde and Ashish Karamchandani, authors of the report “Beyond the Pioneer”, say they are dissatisfied with a situation where small and beautiful new solutions continually excite and inspire us, but fail »