Making Markets Work for Nutritious Diets - Co-creation of Knowledge

 

Poor quality diets are considered one of the leading contributors to the global burden of disease. Current global food systems are not fit for this purpose, as the increased demand for food, spurred by rising population growth and shifts in diets, are accompanied by environmental challenges and the triple burden of malnutrition: underconsumption, overconsumption, and poor nutrition. Further, increasing food production alone does not resolve malnutrition because malnutrition is affected more by consumption patterns of calories and nutrients than it is by lack of available food. Approximately 1 billion people consume too few calories, at least 3 billion have insufficient nutrients, and more than 2.5 billion consume too much. These three burdens, which often coexist in the same community and even in the same household, comprise the central challenge to achieving food security for all.

This project will make strategic contributions to improving markets for nutrition and diet quality in developing countries. It will test approaches to understanding how local food commerce can successfully compete to market more nutritious foods and make them more available and affordable to consumers. The project offers a unique opportunity to learn about and support partnerships with private sector players, particularly small and medium enterprises, to increase the supply and consumption of healthy diets.

The three-year project will be led by the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and will engage IDRC in this multi-donor, CA$30 million initiative on Making Markets Work to Improve the Consumption of Nutritious Foods. Working at the national scale in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Kenya, scalable approaches and policies for strengthening food systems will be tested. Particular attention will be on supporting public-private partnerships to address both demand and supply structures so that the consumption of nutritious foods increases and food systems can sustain healthy dietary patterns.