There could not have been a better time to bring partners together to discuss progress and directions for the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). A recent series of well publicized events have been calling for a much needed global action on nutrition. Earlier this month, governments, businesses, development and science organisations came together at the historic Nutrition for Growth high-level summit co-hosted by the UK government, where $4.15 billion dollars were committed to reduce malnutrition over the next six years.
A set of Lancet reports published just before the summit highlighted malnutrition as the underlying cause of death for at least 3.1 million children per year, accounting for 45 percent of all deaths among children under the age of five.
Agricultural development can have a major role in reducing malnutrition and promoting health which is why CGIAR has committed to spend at least US$400 million on nutrition-relevant agricultural research for the next 3 years.
A large part of this will support the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, which has been operational for over a year. This program works closely with partners to ensure that agricultural practices, interventions, and policies can be better adapted and redesigned to maximize health and nutrition benefits and to reduce health risks. At the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health CRP discussion with donors and partners last Friday, John McDermott, director of the Program, presented its draft framework on how to evolve the program in the next three years.
In his concluding comments, John pointed out that agriculture cannot solve the problem on its own as health is an essential component. Taking a holistic approach, Agriculture for Nutrition and Health will bring together research and development professionals across the agriculture, nutrition, and health sectors.
Stuart Gillespie, senior researcher at IFPRI and CEO of the Transform Nutrition Research Program Consortium, says one good example of this is the Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN) initiative in Zambia where IFPRI is partnering with Concern Worldwide to reduce the prevalence of stunting in children through integrated agriculture, health and nutrition interventions during this critical period from conception until 24 months of age. Concern Worldwide is the main project implementer, and IFPRI will lead the monitoring, learning and evaluation from 2011 to 2015.
A rigorous design and evaluation process is essential to prove the impact of interventions on nutrition and health and enable these to be scaled up. This was a key issue which Rachel Lambert from DFID brought up at Friday’s session. “If we look at the example of the vitamin A enriched orange fleshed sweet potato, we see how valuable a scientific impact evaluation is to convince policy makers and partners to invest in interventions proven to be effective in improving nutrition,” she said. “We need evaluations of a similar quality and rigour for integrated programs,” she added.
The recent focus on nutrition at global events has created an exciting momentum which is very welcome. But this also means we must have well researched interventions to guide effective donor investments. Given the multitude of factors which affect nutrition, programs that cut across agriculture and health would no doubt be the way forward. Programs would need to be properly designed to ensure their impacts are scientifically evaluated, thus maximizing the likelihood to identify approaches that can result in a proven reduction in malnutrition. This need will be addressed as science and development partners work together under the Agriculture for Health and Nutrition program to carefully design and test integrated approaches to nutrition.
More information:
See CGIAR Research Program Engagement with Donors and External Stakeholders for more resources relating to the setting of targets and gauging impacts across the CGIAR Research Program portfolio. #LELP2013 #Ag4Dev (Listening Engaging Learning Progressing – LELP2013)