CoP nutrition

Nutrition (Champion: Caroline Sobgui, WorldVeg and Anitha Seetha- ICRISAT)

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All three projects have struggled to engage fully with quality research teams in this area. The activities that we have conducted have been handled in very different ways within each and, unlike gender for example, there has been little cross-fertilisation. A common approach to nutrition across the regions could allow us to build a critical mass of research in nutrition and be helpful in demonstrating that we are a true programme. It would also allow us to compare achievements towards improved nutrition. Nutrition will become more important to USAID with the new program that will replace Feed-the-Future.

Ultimately, the outputs of increased production and productivity is increased nutrition outcomes. In all the target ecologies we are working in under-nutrition is endemic and the proposed Africa RISING crops crucial. These crops comprised of legumes, cereals and vegetable are in fact common in the target regions but the absence of a robust framework that specifies the focus groups and leverages current nutrition efforts such as the SUN activities in each country. All three projects have struggled to engage fully with quality research teams in this area. The activities that we have conducted have been handled in very different ways within each and, unlike gender for example, there has been little cross-fertilisation. A common approach to nutrition across the region could allow us to build a critical mass of research in nutrition and be helpful in demonstrating that we are a true programme. It would also allow us to compare achievements towards improved nutrition. Nutrition will become more important to USAID with the new program that will replace Feed-the-Future.

Interested members: