Project Highlights (new and on-going)
IITA:
With support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), IITA is implementing the “ Making Agricultural Innovations Work for Smallholder Farmers Affected by HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa (MIRACLE)” project. Project actions
include:
- improving the production, consumption and marketing of nutritionally-enhanced crop and livestock products,
- providing evidence for more supportive agricultural and health policies, and
- strengthening the capacity of key stakeholders engaged in agricultural activities.
The project takes an integrated approach to the sustainable management of agricultural production and post-harvest systems. ,
ILRI:
With support from the Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), is leading a short-term research project with IFPRI and WorldFish
on “rapid assessment of potential benefits to human health and nutrition form research on livestock and fish market chain in Asia.” The
project links the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health and Livestock and Fish CRPs and will focus on identifying the greatest opportunities to improve food
safety and nutritional quality in a number of example animal-source-food value chains. Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health
(LCIRAH) will provide expertise in health and nutrition metrics within this study.
BIOVERSITY:
is working on the “Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and sustainable use for improved human nutrition and well-being”, supported by
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey. The project was launched on April 28th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
during the 2012 World Nutrition Rio Congress. The aim of this project is to provide evidence on the importance of agricultural biodiversity to tackle
growing global concerns over the negative health implications of poor nutrition. For more information, go to: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/index.php?id=5597
Program Developments
April and May have been a very busy time for the Program Management Unit. The following are highlights of the main activities undertaken:
Program Participant Agreements (PPA)
After several rounds of revisions to make sure that the PPA addresses expectations from the program and the Consortium, the final draft with budget, work
plan and financial reporting templates has been circulated to all participating centers for review and comment. We plan to finalize and sign the PPAs and
start transferring funds by the end of June.
Program Name
More than 30 suggestions were submitted through the naming contest. These suggestions were reviewed considering the Program’s unique role in addressing the
gap between Agriculture, Nutrition and Health, and it was decided to slightly revise the name to CGIAR Program on “ Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.” The operational name/ acronym for the Program is A4NH.
Website and Internal Communication Tools
Now that the Program has a name, the Management Unit is working on setting up communication tools, creating the website, and other outreach activities with
the help of IFPRI’s Communications and Computer Services teams, we hope to have this in place soon.
Stakeholders Update
As you all know the 1st issue of the Newsletter to stakeholders has been sent out to a wide audience of A4NH interested groups and has been well
received. We plan to send this update three times a year. Your suggestions are most welcome!
Independent Advisory Committee (IAC)
An independent advisory committee has been established; an invitation to serve in the IAC was sent out to six nominees and has been accepted by all. We
plan to hold the 1st meeting in November, 2012.
PARTNERSHIPS
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
A4NH (John, Valerie, Laurian, Marie and Howdy) and GAIN (Bonnier McClafferty, Dominic Schofield, and John Barbour) teams met on May 4th. They
discussed the development of a workplan to implement joint activities following the recent signing off an MOU. Areas of discussion included: priorities for
nutritional improvement in different focal countries, business plan and demand enhancement for biofortified crops, reduced milling of grain and other
topics. A detailed workplan will be developed over the next few weeks.
University of Pretoria
Professor Sheryl Hendricks, Director: Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well-being (IFNuW), visited Washington in early May to develop a draft workplan
between A4NH and the University of Pretoria. Areas for collaboration fall under (sub) Component 1, 3.1, 3.2, and 4.2. including:
- Market constraints to improving diet quality (Comp. 1)
- Private-public partnership in co-regulating food safety and nutritional quality (Comp. 1)
- Animal Source Food value chains – improving nutrition and food safety (Comp. 1 and 3.1)
- Safe Food Fair Food (SFFF) (Food safety in CRP 3.7 value chains) (Comp. 3.1)
- One Health (Comp. 3.2)
- CAADP (Comp. 4.2)
- Integrate nutrition into economic growth models to determine savings (Comp. 4.2)
Connecting with Partners in Nigeria, Bangladesh and Rome
In Nigeria, John and Valerie met with the IITA A4NH team for 2.5 days to discuss IITA’s activities related to A4NH. The discussions highlight 5 outcome
stories that encompass IITA exciting research under A4NH:
- Biofortification: The story focuses on breeding, delivery, and socio-economic aspects of adoption.
- Cassava value chains for better nutrition: The story focuses on the better quality and acceptance of agricultural products through improved post-harvest and processing activities. It suggests the need to combine enriched outputs into new products such as cassava and cowpea flour that target women, young children, and infants.
- Aflatoxin: This story focus on the linkage between agriculture and health.
- Eco-health: This story focused on the links between agricultural intensification, malaria and buruli.
- Miracle Project- This story focuses on better agricultural opportunities for income and nutrition for HIV-affected people.
In Bangladesh, John and Valerie held meetings with WorldFish, CIP CRP 1.3 on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS), and IFPRI-Dhaka Office to discuss
activities related to A4NH. The teams from these Centers including a representative from AVDRC met as a group to identify ways to work together in
Bangladesh in regards to A4NH. The key actions derived from this meeting are:
- To hold a multi-CRP launch meeting in early 2013 around 3 platforms: Staples (availability) and biofortification; highly nutritious foods (availability
& bioavailability); and Policy/ Programs (access and utilization). The meeting will provide an opportunity for government buy-in - A4NH will take lead in approaching health and nutrition offices of donors
- Determine potential availability and access to the Bangladesh household dataset that was recently collected.
The WorldFish Center and key government actors organized a seminar on “Agriculture and Nutrition Linkages within the Bangladesh Country Investment Plan (CIP), April 18th. John made a presentation on potential areas for CRP4 collaboration in Bangladesh, based on the Country Investment plan. In the
afternoon, John and Valerie had discussions with different CGIAR Centers working in Bangladesh on opportunities for improving nutrition through three main program areas – staple foods, nutrient-rich foods and policies and investment support.
In Rome, Bruce Cogill and colleagues at Bioversity arranged a seminar presented by John and Laurian on “Agriculture for Improved Nutrition & Health”
and “Enhancing Nutrition in Value Chains”. The seminar was attended by colleagues at Bioversity, with on line participation from country and regional
offices including staff from ICRAF, Swaminatham Foundation, and SAVE in the UK.
They also had a working session with the Bioversity A4NH team to discuss work plans, budgets, deliverables and outcome stories for 2012 and beyond. The
Bioversity team expressed interest in exploring the following areas of research:
- Dietary market transition
- Value chains that link diversity to diet, livelihoods, market systems and improved quality of life
- Influencing policy and decision makers around investments in agro diversity (overall an area for development)
John and Laurian also met with nutrition partners at FAO and WFP to discuss mutual areas of interest to potential collaboration.
| Calendar | |
| June4-5 | Component Leaders Meeting, Washington, DC |
| June21 – 23 | Platform for Health and Economic Convergence workshop on ” Paths of Convergence for Agriculture, Health and Wealth ” New Delhi, India |
| July3-4 | The 2nd Annual LCIRAH Agri-Health Workshop on The Role of Agricultural and Food Systems Research in Combating Chronic Disease for DevelopmentLondon, 2-3 July, 2012 |
| August 27-30 | The World Water Week in Stockholm |
| October 10-12 | Center Focal Points/Programme Management Committee Meeting in Rome, Italy |
| October 25-30 | The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GCARD 2) |
| Nov. 5-6 | HarvestPlus Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting |
| Nov. 7 | CRP4 Independent Advisory Committee Meeting |
| ResourcesFood and Nutrition Sciences: (FNS, March 2012, Volume 3, Issue 3): www.scirp.org/journal/fnsFAO just finished their 31st NERC meeting. A first draft of the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition was formulated as an output of a multi-stakeholder dialogue, which includes participation in research with the CGIAR.
Training course on Food Systems: From Agronomy to Human Health |
Events held/attended
April 18: World Fish organized a seminar on Agriculture – Nutrition Linkages within the Bangladesh Country Investment Plan (CIP): a Road Map towards Investment in Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Seminar. John made a presentation on CRP4 and potential areas of collaboration.
April 27-30: Marie Ruel and Jody Harris chaired a session at the World Nutrition Conference in Rio de Janeiro, entitled ‘How can agriculture contribute to improving nutrition and health?’ The session was well attended, with a lot of interest in the presentations on biofortification, value chains for nutrition, and the contribution of economic and agricultural growth to reductions in malnutrition.
May 1: John, Valerie and Marie attended the Secure Nutrition seminar on developing capacity for food and nutrition security: African experience in the context of CAADP given by Sheryl Hendricks.
May 7-9: John participated in the Global Development Symposium at University of Guelph, Canada and gave a presentation on: “Agriculture, Food, Health and “Security: View from a rapidly changing world”.
May 14: CRP4 jointly with CRP2 had its 1st brainstorming meeting on Monitoring and Evaluation to look at different implementation options.
May 17: John, Valerie, Marie, Howdy and Laurian attended the SecureNutrition Knowledge Platform Launch
May 18: John attended the 3rd Annual Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security: Advancing Food
and Nutrition Security at the 2012 G8 Summit.
May 21: Howdy Bouis gave a presentation on “Bio fortification–Where We Stand Today” at Bio fortification: Leveraging Agriculture to Improve Nutrition discussion forum organized by Center for Strategic and International Studies.
May 22: In Bangladesh, a seminar was held to provide a broad overview of the nutrition research portfolio that IFPRI and its key partners are managing in
Bangladesh and promote collaboration, discuss complementarities and overlap, and identify potential research gaps that could be filled by new projects.
Several CRP4 projects that focus on agriculture policies and programs and their links to nutrition were highlighted at the meeting, including Leveraging
Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (LANSA); Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING); Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program (PRSSP); and Transform Nutrition.
July 2-3: The Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) is organising a two-day workshop in London on ‘The Role of Agricultural and Food Systems Research in Combating Chronic Disease for Development’. Confirmed speakers/discussants at the workshop include Srinath Reddy, John Barrett, Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Ismael Thiam, Marion Nestle, Marie Ruel, John McDermott and Gert Meijer, among others. More information at http://www.lcirah.ac.uk/node/8
Many of you will already have had a request for information about your research on agriculture-nutrition from the DFID-funded project based at the
Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) and the University of Aberdeen. If you have not responded already, and would like your research to be included in this mapping of CRP4-relevant research, please contact Rachel Turner at rachel.turner@lshtm.ac.uk.
This electronic newsletter provides an opportunity to share information on the Program’s developments, activities, resources and upcoming events amongst partners. Please share what you have been doing and any other relevant information we can include in this newsletter, contribution can be sent to Tigist Defabachew
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