Agriculture and Nutrition Resource Review

Transfers of food-producing livestock encourage direct consumption of such foods, while transfer of other livestock assets (draft cattle) encourages non-food expenditures  by the beneficiaries. These findings suggest an opportunity to influence behavior  toward food.

Positive monitoring reports and feedback from Ghana indicate that the School Meals Planner Package tool can be adapted for other countries to meet context-specific needs. The package includes the School Meal Planner tool, “handy measures,” and behavior change communication activities and materials designed to provide schoolchildren with nutritious, locally-sourced meals. 

This study compared models of the most nutritious version of a commonly consumed diet given locally available foods (“common diet”) in 3 agroecological zones of Nepal with the least expensive possible diet meeting micronutrient needs (“optimal diet”). Optimal diets include foods not currently available while the common diet lacks key nutrients. The model suggests that optimal diets are more expensive than the common diet in the mountains and hills but less expensive in the terai. 

This article features one community’s story of an innovative, community-focused approach to tackling malnutrition in rural Bangladesh through its Farmer Nutrition School pioneered by SPRING/Bangladesh. These schools provide pregnant and lactating women with the knowledge and skills to take control of their family’s health and nutrition.

In light of the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4GII) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 4th, 2016, this brief provides information and advice to help policymakers invest in effective policies to reduce all forms of malnutrition. These recommendations have been drawn from a series of rigorous, scientific analyses conducted by the Panel as one of the commitments from the first Nutrition for Growth Summit, in London. 

This book, available for download, brings together stories about improving nutrition from the past five decades to provide insight into what works in nutrition, what does not, and the factors that contribute to success. The launch event featured highlights from the book followed by discussion on how to scale up and accelerate progress on nutrition.

The second edition of the Sustainable Nutrition Manual has been released after endorsement by Malawi’s Agriculture Technology Clearing Committee (ATCC). The new version provides details on implementation with more visual aids, sharing about success and overcoming challenges, and practical steps to permaculture.

In these short videos, World Bank experts describe how they integrated nutrition-sensitive agriculture activities into their work. Each video provides concrete examples of what drives the integration of nutrition into projects, and shows how to make conventional agriculture activities more nutrition-sensitive.

This resource outlines intervention design, impact evaluation, and the approach to form partnerships to expand the practice of household gardens. The World Vegetable Center’s approach to household gardening emphasizes three synergistic components - gardening, nutrition and health, and support systems.

The nutrition and climate change communities came together in this special session following the 6th Global Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) Workshop in Montpellier, France. The discussion focused on how to shape the food environment in the context of a changing world. Participants learned about the evidence and metrics and methods needed to better understand the linkages and pathways between diets, nutrition, health outcomes and climate change.

This year’s symposium focused on approaches to improving agricultural production, nutrition governance, the role of home food production on consumption, influences of mycotoxins on food availability and nutritional status, and integrated approaches to improving nutritional status. Participants were students and professionals engaged in conducting or utilizing research focused in Nepal or relevant to Nepal. 

Designing and disseminating technologies through Agricultural Extension Services in a gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive way can help extend the benefits of technologies like increased productivity, income, and food availability to both men and women. In this webinar, Cristina Manfre and Caitlin Nordehn share a new methodology to assess the degree to which agricultural technologies are gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive in terms of their design, use, and dissemination. 

In partnership with USAID's Bureau for Food Security and Bureau for Global Health, SPRING hosted the Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy Global Learning & Evidence Exchange (MSN-GLEE) conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Staff from USAID's Bureau for Food Security, Bureau for Global Health, the Office of Food for Peace, USAID Missions in Asia, implementing partners, and host country governments shared their experiences and research, enabling widespread engagement across the countries and improving understanding of emerging concepts.

The fourth and final MSN-GLEE was held in Washington, DC, on July 15, 2016 and was attended by USAID Mission staff and other U.S. Government staff, host country government partners, implementing partners, and other experts working in this area. The objectives of the MSN-GLEE were to: improve understanding of relevant evidence related to multisectoral programming; share practical examples of country experiences, tools, and approaches; and, strengthen understanding of multi-sectoral collaboration and coordination. 

The Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health (ANH) Academy Week held in Addis Ababa in June led to a side meeting of Ethiopia-based Ag2Nut Community of Practice members, resulting in the formation of Ethiopian sub-group. Participants in this call learned about how this first country sub-group formed, what it is doing, and how to connect with Ag2Nut members in any specific country. Speakers also described a few highlights of ANH week and resources.