Knowledge gaps

Emerging evidence on the nutrition double burden suggests that income growth alone cannot solve the problem of malnutrition and may in fact create problems linked to overweight and obesity. The challenge from the nutrition perspective is how to sustainably improve diets, as well as other health related behaviours, across different low-income populations. 

In nutrition debates there is growing interest in the capacity of the private sector to contribute to improved nutrition outcomes. Discussions have incorporated thinking around value chain frameworks, which emerged in the late 1990s to help development agencies design interventions that responded to the needs of the private sector and contributed to development.

Value chain approaches can provide useful frameworks to examine the food system and the potential to achieve improved nutrition by leveraging market-based systems. However, understanding the links between value chains and nutrition is complex, and very little evidence exists on the potential or the trade-offs involved. 

Proposed approach

This project aims to operationalise and validate a multidisciplinary framework, including methods and metrics, to support the identification, design and evaluation of interventions in value chains for nutritious foods and improve the sustainability and effectiveness of the World Food Programme (WFP) programmes in Malawi.

The project proposes to build on ongoing operational research between the CGIAR Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) programme and the WFP to provide generic and Malawi specific guidance on linking value chains to nutrition outcomes. 

Linking value chains to nutrition outcomes

The proposed activities will bring together nutrition and agricultural marketing experts alongside policy and programme stakeholders to address the following objectives:

1. Refine a multidisciplinary framework linking value chains to nutrition outcomes and apply it to WFP’s operations in Malawi. 
2. Develop and validate new theory-based methods and metrics to support the identification, design and evaluation of interventions that link value chains to nutrition.
3. Consolidate the evidence and validate research priorities from a multidisciplinary perspective, laying the foundation for prospective impact evaluations and subsequent meta-analyses in this emerging field. 

Publications:

Economic evaluation of an early childhood development center–based agriculture and nutrition intervention in Malawi (2021)

When Communities Pull Their Weight: The Economic Costs of an Integrated Agriculture and Nutrition Home-Grown Preschool Meal Intervention in Malawi (2021)

A Community-Based Early Childhood Development Center Platform Promoting Diversified Diets and Food Production Increases the Mean Probability of Adequacy of Intake of Preschoolers in Malawi: A Cluster Randomized Trial (2020)

Designing interventions in local value chains for improved health and nutrition: Insights from Malawi (2019)

Using a Community-Based Early Childhood Development Center as a Platform to Promote Production and Consumption Diversity Increases Children's Dietary Intake and Reduces Stunting in Malawi: A Cluster-Randomized Trial (2018)

Lean-Season Food Transfers Affect Children’s Diets and Household Food Security: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Malawi, The Journal of Nutrition (2017)

Doctoral dissertation:

Seeding Change? Improving and Understanding Household Food Security in a Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Program in Malawi: a Mixed-Methods Study (2019)

Discussion paper:

Adding a nutrition behavior change communication component to an early childhood development intervention in Malawi: A cluster randomized trial (2019)

Methods guide:

Nutrition-sensitive value chains from a smallholder perspective: A framework for project design (2020)

Briefing note:

Traditional Leadership and Social Support in Southern Malawi (2017)

Blog:

Harnessing markets for improved nutrition (2017)

ANH Learning Lab:

Value chains for nutrition (2017)