Joint A4NH/ISPC workshop on nutrition

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JOINT A4NH/ISPC WORKSHOP ON NUTRITION
22-23 September 2014
IFPRI Headquarters
2033 K St, NW, Washington, DC 20006-1002, United States
OBJECTIVES:
1. To inform further the 2nd round of CRP proposals in terms of enhancing the design of agricultural research to contribute to the System-Level Outcome on “Improving Nutrition and Health” (SLO 3).
2. To feed into the 2013 Science Forum special issue publications where appropriate.
PROGRAMME
MONDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2014
9:00-9:30 Maggie Gill - Welcome, background and workshop overview
9:30-17:00 SESSION 1: Research to increase access to an affordable, nutritious and safe diet
Markets are very important for securing a diverse, nutritious diet year round for most people. Many agricultural investments aim to increase income and/or to increase productivity and thereby reduce food prices. Reductions in food prices, however, have been largely driven by investments in a small number of crops. Research and development attention has been strongly on staple grains, with relatively little on tropical legumes and other orphan crops, and this has been cited as reducing diet quality (Gómez et al. 20131, Bouis 20002). At the same time, dietary transitions that lead to obesity and chronic disease may be occurring at lower income levels over time. This session discusses how agriculture R&D can contribute to ensuring access to diverse, nutritious, sustainably-produced foods, and to ensuring that given sufficient demand, smallholder farmers are able to participate in markets regardless of the crops or livestock they choose to grow.
09:30-10:00 Prabhu Pingali - Agricultural Policy – getting beyond the pre- occupation with staple crops.
10:00-10:15 Discussion
10:15-10:45 Will Masters - Rural market access and nutritional outcomes in farm households.
10:45-11:00 Discussion
11:00-11:30 TEA/COFFEE BREAK
1 Gómez, M.I., et al. Post-green revolution food systems and the triple burden of malnutrition. Food Policy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.06.009
2 Bouis, H.E., 2000. Special issue on improving nutrition through agriculture. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 21 (4).

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11:30-11:50 Bonnie McClafferty - Marketplace for Nutritious Foods.
11:50-12:00 Discussion
12:00-12:20 Tom Randolph - Food safety trade-offs.
12:20-12:30 Discussion
12:30-13:30 LUNCH
13:30-14:00 Robert Mwadime - Linking Smallholder Farmers to Markets: Considerations for Diet Diversification.
14:00-14:45 Discussion
14:45-15:15 TEA/COFFEE BREAK
15:15-16:45 Facilitated discussion around structured questions
1. Improving nutrition through value chain R&D: what are the most important opportunities for improving nutrition through value chain R&D? What are the critical risks for improved nutrition through value development that need to be understood and mitigated?
2. Partnerships for improved nutrition through value chains: what are the internal CGIAR partnerships for improving agricultural contributions to nutrition and how can they be improved? What are the key external partnerships (private sector, policy makers and regulators, farmers and other organizations)?
Facilitator: John McDermott
16:45-17:00 Wrap-up of Day 1 – John McDermott
19:30 Dinner for interested participants (at a local restaurant)
TUESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2014
9:00-9:30 Overview of A4NH – John McDermott
9:30-17:00 SESSION 2: Evaluating the impact of agricultural interventions and investments on nutrition
While there is a broad literature on impacts of agricultural innovations, most studies primarily focus on impacts in terms of productivity and income. Nutrition and health impacts have rarely been analyzed in detail. This session discusses measures at household level and in the local food environment that could be integrated into agricultural monitoring and evaluation in order to show their effects on nutrition and health dimensions more explicitly. Previous research has found that agricultural GDP growth is associated with faster reductions in undernutrition, but also faster increases in overweight and obesity than non- agricultural GDP growth (Webb and Block 20113). This may be due to the use of increased income within food environments in which nutrient-poor calories are more affordable, convenient, and desirable than nutrient-rich foods. Agriculture investments can better contribute to reducing all forms of malnutrition simultaneously. A multidimensional index of
3 Webb, P and Block, S; edited by Pingali, P. 2011. Support for agriculture during economic transformation: Impacts on poverty and undernutrition. PNAS www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0913334108

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nutrition combines the six key nutrition metrics used as goals for 2025 set by the World Health Assembly can be compared to progress in agriculture or other sectors.
09:30-10:00 Nancy Johnson - Use of impact pathways and theories of change in A4NH: Approach and progress to date.
10:00-10:15 Discussion
10:15-10:45 Anna Herforth - Measurement of food environments to improve the design and evaluation of agricultural interventions for nutrition.
10:45-11:00 Discussion
11:00-11:30 TEA/COFFEE BREAK
11:30-12:00 Patrick Webb - A Multi-Dimensional Index of Nutrition.
12:00-12:15 Discussion
12:15-12:30 Laura Birx – Respondent
12:30-13:30 LUNCH
13:30-14:45 Facilitated discussion: What are the challenges of evaluating the impact of agriculture on nutrition? From agriculture perspective, what are the challenges of delivering on nutrition? From a nutrition perspective, how can we help agriculture improve its impacts on nutrition?
Facilitator: Marie Ruel
14:45-15:15 TEA/COFFEE BREAK
15:15-16:45 Facilitated discussion: What should each CRP measure, and how can accountability to SLO3 be ensured?
Discussants:
Joyce Kinabo - Accountability to the beneficiaries” of the research or program
USAID - Feed the Future analogy on accountability
Facilitator: Anna Herforth
16:45-17:00 John McDermott and Maggie Gill - Wrap-up and next steps