The European Landscape on

Agriculture, Nutrition and Food

Security in the South: What role for

EFARD?

Judith Francis

Jouairyatou Wague

On Agricultural Research for

Development

Outline

• Background

• Objective

• The discussion paper

• Results

• Conclusion

Background

2013: EFARD identified food and nutrition security as one of the

four central subjects of interest

2014: EFARD Annual Meeting on nutrition and health related to

ARD

Key statistics:

795 million people suffering from hunger

2 billion people having a key micronutrient deficiences

Food Health

Objectives

• Identify EFARD capacities and opportunities for

action in strengthening the agriculture-nutrition

link : How European research contributes to food

and nutrition security?

• Making knowledge available among EFARD

constituency

The discussion paper

Methodology

Characterise European research on nutrition

agriculture – nutrition link

Literature review:

- Organisations of EFARD members and collaborators

- Databases to access research projects, programmes

- Selection of documents of interest:

reference to agriculture-nutrition

involvement of European organisations

international nutrition initiatives including agriculture

Results

European Union

- Public donor +++

- Nutrition and

health among

priorities of Action

Results

European Union

- Majority of work targets African countries

- Focus on women and children

- Interventions linked to political commitment, governance and

capacity building

- Comments:

Need to include nutritionnal impact in expected results of call for

proposals for H2020 programme related to agriculture-nutrition

nexus.

Results

European Union development partners

Ministries of the European member countries and Federal

agencies for development aid

They provide support and are involved in the funding and

implementation of nutrition-related programmes.

Contemporary topic: green growth

environmentSustainabledevelopment

agriculturenutrition

Results

Research centres and universities

- General and specific research work on agriculture linked tonutrition

- Agrobiodiversity and vegetable gardens are increasingly takingcentre stage

- Re geographic spread of the interventions - some countriesbenefit from numerous programmes.

- Comments

Many programmes and projects coming from Western Europeanresearch centres and universities but few from Eastern Europe does not mean that they do not exist.

Need references to key words on nutrition in project titles

Results

European Civil Society Organisations

- NGO and FO: Programmes in the field of agro-ecology,

promotion of biodiversity, sustainable practices, etc. most of

the time for small producers.

- Private Sector: involved in food processing, e.g. micronutrient

fortification. Allows them to target a broad section of the

population.

- Comments:

Private sector +++ for value chain development & enhancing

marketing/production of nutrient dense food. Needs public sector

oversight in terms of standards & regulatory monitoring.

Discussion

- Analyses of previous programmes and projects on ag-nutrition

nexus have not necessarily shown evidence of impact

question of assessment, indicators, nutrition goal.

- Is including nutrition in ag projects only a fad? e.g. How is the

nutrient composition of foods changing under various

production systems and over time?

- Women of child bearing age most impacted (anemia, zinc,

under-weight). How is ag performance impacted?

- Focus is on rural areas; should urban consumers and

marginalised populations be considered?

Conclusion

- EC is committed to improving nutrition outcomes.

- European organisations are involved in research to strengthenthe agriculture-nutrition link. Desired nutrition outcomes andimpact pathways should be clear.

- Collaboration should be extended between differentstakeholders (multi-sector approach) and disciplines (multi-disciplinary approach) EFARD can play a major role in:

- promoting a more integrated R&I approach for improvingnutrition outcomes

- identifying research gaps – e.g. need for tracking micronutrientcomposition of foods – where is the problem;production/processing/consumption?

- Idenntifying indicators for measuring impact.

Conclusion

The Trickle Down Approach. Chung, 2012

Thank you for your attention