nutrition-sensitive

This article discusses value chain approaches as innovative strategies to enhance the nutritional impact of agriculture. These approaches use supply chains to add value (usually economic) to products as they move from producers to consumers. However, they can also be used to increase access to nutritious foods and improve nutritional status. »

This compendium is designed to assist officers responsible for designing nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture investments in selecting appropriate indicators to monitor if these investments are having an impact on nutrition and through which pathways. The guide is for those responsible for the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of investment projects in food and agriculture (including and in addition to value chains, social development, and rural development) that need to demonstrate that they lead to intermediary results toward improved nutrition. »

This article investigates explores suitable indicators for measuring nutrition-agriculture linkages. The evidence base for impact of agriculture on nutrition is bounded by what is measured. The authors argue that the understanding of true impact of agriculture on nutrition has been limited by the scope of available indicators. The paper reviews which nutrition impact indicators are currently used in agriculture-nutrition projects, and highlights priorities and gaps in measurement. »

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 issue of Rural21 shows how closely agriculture, nutrition and health are linked and takes a look at the various entry-points for improving nutrition through agriculture: from the choice of adequate seed systems and breeding programmes through agricultural policy interventions to promoting market access, production diversification and better functioning value chains to capacity building, nutrition education and gender equality. The issue also contains an article on the SUN movement and the importance of pulses. »

In partnership with A4NH, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) developed a note outlining ways to scale up results in nutrition-sensitive agriculture and rural development. The note (PDF) offers guidance to help implementers maximize agriculture and rural development interventions to eliminate malnutrition. »