The Nutrition Sensitivity of Agriculture and Food Policies. Summaries of Eight Country Case Studies (UNSCN, March 2014)
This document provides summaries of a series of case studies on the nutrition sensitivity of agriculture and food policies in 8 countries, a well as how the policies influence dietary, nutritional, and health outcomes.
The case studies were taken in Brazil, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Thailand.
Identify and describe food and agriculture strategies, policies, and investments that incorporate nutrition-sensitive actions and recommendations
Describe policy processes and the political environment of nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture policy-making and identify factors contributing or impending collaboration and cooperation between relevant ministries.
Key messages mentioned in the document are:
Food and nutrition security includes achieving sufficient dietary diversity and quality as well as sufficient caloric quantity
Food and agriculture policies and programmes have a major role to play in improving a country’s nutritional outcomes
Many of the case studies demonstrated increased awareness of the multi-sectoral nature of nutrition and political actions to address the problems of undernutrition and obesity.
Many of the policies analyzed in the case studies incorporated nutrition objectives and indicators to measure progress, targeted women and the vulnerable, and focused on a diversified food production. However, some policies did not emphasize interventions to improve processing, storage, marketing, or utilization of foods. Very few have assessed impact of their policies on nutrition outcomes.
Major policies often include nutrition objectives, but there is a tendency to prioritize explicit sector priorities within ministries at the expense of nutrition.
Developing increased nutrition-focused human resources capacity is a critical component of implementing multi-sectoral approaches to achieving food and nutrition security.
Robust monitoring and evaluation and innovative monitoring tools are essential to understanding the impact and effectiveness of nutrition-focused policies and programmes.
The rising levels of overweight and obesity, which often exist alongside undernutrition, are a challenge that must be addressed moving forward.
Full report can be downloaded here
Note: one of the authors is Jessica Fanzo PhD - CWS board member.
