Policy foundations, country dialogues, and analytics for food system transformative integrated policy in Rwanda, Malawi, and Ghana

The imperative for food systems transformation is increasingly acknowledged by African governments and reflected in the strategic priorities of the African Union Development Agency. Despite some commendable progress with food security and nutrition, they have yet to achieve the intersectoral commitments and changes required for sustainable, resilient supply systems promoting gender and socio-economic equity, and for creating a nutritious food environment for consumers that addresses the growing double burden of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases.

This initiative will build momentum towards achieving sustainable health diets for all by working with the governments of Malawi, Rwanda, and Ghana, which have all committed to embarking on a food system transformation journey. Activities will synchronize with, inform, and respond to government-led food systems summit dialogues. They will strengthen capabilities for collation of data and deep analysis of food systems, promote regional and international knowledge exchange, and catalyze engagement of public, private, and social sector stakeholders necessary for the development of principle-based, transparent, coherent, and inclusive food system policies.

A standardized framework will be developed for food system analysis and diagnostics, applied in each country to generate valuable information for the dialogues and evaluated for scalable use internationally. Implementation research will strengthen the execution, outputs, and learnings from this initiative and inform subsequent plans for scaling the integrated food system policy journey in other countries.

This initiative is supported through the new Catalyzing Change for Healthy Sustainable Food Systems (CCHeFS) partnership between IDRC and the Rockefeller Foundation.