Sivan Yosef

Agriculture and nutrition in India: mapping evidence to pathways.

In India, progress against undernutrition has been slow. Given its importance for income generation, improving diets, care practices, and maternal health, the agriculture sector is widely regarded as playing an important role in accelerating the reduction in undernutrition. This paper comprehensively maps existing evidence along agriculture–nutrition pathways in India and assesses both the quality and coverage of the existing literature. We present a conceptual framework delineating six key pathways between agriculture and nutrition. Three pathways pertain to the nutritional impacts of farm production, farm incomes, and food prices. The other three pertain to agriculture–gender linkages. After an extensive search, we found 78 research papers that provided evidence to populate these pathways. The literature suggests that Indian agriculture has a range of important influences on nutrition. Agriculture seems to influence diets even when controlling for income, and relative food prices could partly explain observed dietary changes in recent decades. The evidence on agriculture–gender linkages to nutrition is relatively weak. Sizeable knowledge gaps remain. The root causes of these gaps include an interdisciplinary disconnect between nutrition and economics/agriculture, a related problem of inadequate survey data, and limited policy‐driven experimentation. Closing these gaps is essential to strengthening the agriculture sectors contribution to reducing undernutrition.

Public-Private Partnerships and the Reduction of Undernutrition in Developing Countries

This paper brings structure to the discussion of private-sector engagement in nutrition by clarifying different models of engagement, reviews the evidence base on public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the reduction of undernutrition, and outlines some potential ways forward. We find that there are few independent, rigorous assessments of the impact of commercial-sector engagement in nutrition. Considerable caution is thus warranted when assessing PPPs in nutrition. Looking forward, future progress requires that the private sector recognize that past and current actions by some firms have created an environment of mistrust. It requires that the public sector accept that sustainable PPPs are those which permit private firms to generate profits. There is significant scope for the private sector to drive innovations that could reduce undernutrition, and, more speculatively, there may be scope for the private sector to act as a financier. Underpinning all these efforts must lie open discussions of the objectives, roles, and expectations of all parties along with potential conflicts of interest; an open space or platform where issues and challenges can be discussed and addressed; incentives for the private sector to take on pro-nutrition roles; strong, transparent, and well-enforced monitoring processes; and serious, independent evaluations of these activities.

Agriculture and Nutrition in Bangladesh Mapping Evidence to Pathways

Background: Although much work has been done on the theoretical links between agriculture and nutrition, there is limited understanding of the evidence from observational and experimental research studies on the impacts of agriculture programs on nutrition outcomes. Objective: To assess the emphasis of the literature on different agriculture–nutrition pathways in Bangladesh. Methods: Twenty databases and Web sites were searched, yielding more than 2400 resources that were pared down through an iterative, eliminative process to 60 articles. These articles were then rated for quality and mapped to 1 of the 6 agriculture–nutrition pathways. Results: The body of evidence reveals gaps in knowledge in all of the pathways, but especially in the areas of agriculture as a source of livelihoods, and women’s role as intermediaries between agriculture and good nutrition and health within their household. Conclusion: More research is needed on the links between agriculture and nutrition in country-specific settings, particularly as regards the role of women. Nutrition-related outcomes, such as dietary diversity and women’s empowerment, need to be measured more explicitly when evaluating the impact of agricultural production systems and development initiatives.

Urbanization, Food Security and Nutrition

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. This has profound implications for global trends in poverty, food security and nutrition and for global and local food systems. This chapter reviews the status of poverty, food security and malnutrition in urban compared to rural areas; provides an overview of the unique challenges and opportunities for urban dwellers to generate income and achieve food security and nutrition; and discusses the implications for urban programs, policies and research. Our review confirms that the location of poverty is rapidly shifting from rural to urban areas and that food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms are highly prevalent among urban dwellers. Particularly alarming are the rapid rises in overweight and obesity in urban areas, while undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies persist. Our review highlights critical gaps in knowledge and understanding of the distinctive factors and conditions that shape poverty, food security and nutrition in urban areas; it calls for new research to better document how food systems affect the nutrition transition, as well as urban diets and nutrition, and how, in turn, the food system could be leveraged to prevent future deterioration. We conclude that in order to counter the rising challenge of the nutrition transition and to achieve zero hunger and malnutrition, policymakers and programmers must be equipped with better data to design adequate programs and policies that: (1) support increased food availability and access of the urban poor to healthy, nutritious and safe foods and stimulate demand for healthy diets; (2) promote and facilitate physical activity; (3) promote and support urban agriculture and safe, affordable and nutritious street foods; (4) create income-generating opportunities for urban dwellers, including women, and use tailored and well-targeted social safety net programs as needed; (5) ease trade-offs for working women; and (6) improve access of poor urban dwellers to high-quality health care, water, sanitation, waste removal and electricity services.

Public-Private Partnerships and Undernutrition: Examples and Future Prospects

In this chapter, we clarify what is meant by public-private partnerships (PPPs), provide examples of both successful and less successful PPPs and describe some broad lessons. We see scope for PPPs that would reduce aspects of undernutrition. However, this optimism comes with significant caveats. First, while there would appear to be a large body of evidence on this topic, closer examination shows that there are few independent, rigorous assessments of the impact of commercial sector engagement in nutrition. Considerable caution is therefore warranted when assessing either commendations or criticisms of PPPs in nutrition. Second, progress in this area requires that the private sector recognize that past and current actions by some firms have created an environment of mistrust and that the public sector accept that sustainable PPPs permit private firms to generate profits. Progress also requires recognition that PPPs involving multiple firms can be problematic either because such partnerships force competitors to collaborate or because they create the potential for the involved firms to lock out firms that are not members of the partnership. Lest this all sound too negative, from a nutrition perspective, we note that there may be significant scope for the involvement of the private sector in driving innovations that could reduce undernutrition. More speculatively, there may also be scope for the private sector to act as a financier of investments to improve childrens nutritional status. For PPPs to succeed, there must be open discussions of the objectives, roles and expectations of all parties along with potential conflicts of interest.