The world is being confronted by multiple, complex, cascading challenges and shocks that impact on human well-being, including nutrition and micronutrient security. The Micronutrient Forum’s 6th Global Conference, a hybrid conference will be held online and in The Hague (the Netherlands) between 16 and 20 October against this backdrop of climate-change and man-made conflicts exacerbating food security and nutrition challenges. The conference aims to elevate and strengthen scientific understanding and policy dialogues on this year's theme Nutrition for Resilience “N4R” - Ensuring Micronutrient Security in an Era of Complex Global Challenges”.
By bringing together diverse stakeholders across sectors and disciplines, the Forum’s 6th Global Conference will help shape and establish a compelling and evidence-based agenda on the interdependence of nutrition and resilience – offering opportunities to advance integrated research, new policy priorities and investments for micronutrient interventions, and to accelerate progress towards global nutrition and development goals.
With four curated Tracks, the conference promises to share cutting-edge knowledge that opens gateways for novel answers, discusses feasibility and sustainability of solutions with peers and experts, and fosters new collaborations for forging the path ahead. The four tracks on which the conference sessions will focus are defined as follows:
- Track 1: Micronutrient Biology and Status Assessment
- Track 2: Efficacy and Safety on Micronutrient Interventions
- Track 3: Program Implementation and Effectiveness
- Track 4: Designing Enabling Environments for Micronutrients
As part of the conference's programme committee, GAIN's Director of Knowledge Leadership Mdu Mbuya co-chairs Track 3. For more information about the MNF conference and registration, please go here: https://mnforum2023.org/
GAIN at the MNF 2023:
Through participation in the MNF conference GAIN aims to enhance evidence by sharing insights from our programs, to catalyze the links between nutrition and healthier diets, and facilitate development of new insights between stakeholders.
The GAIN team will be participating at the MNF conference as session chairs, panelists and presenters, via oral and poster presentations and through two sponsored symposia and two learning sessions. The thematic areas for these will span across GAIN's programmatic portfolio, including topics such as affordability of healthy diets, understanding of food purchases and consumer behaviour, food systems infrastructure for healthy diet delivery and linkages between nutrition and environment.
Please see below links for GAIN's presentations and sessions at the Micronutrient Forum’s 6th Global Conference:
DAY 1
Opening Ceremony and Keynote Lecture: Nutrition in Crisis: Ensuring Nutrition Resilience in an Era of Complex Global Challenges
16 October 2023, 3.30-5.00pm
King Willem Alexander Hall
GAIN's Executive Director Lawrence Haddad is co-chair and a panelist in the panel 'What is the key opportunity or lesson learned on how to build nutrition and micronutrient resilience in the context of complex global challenges?' during the opening ceremony.
DAY 2
Utilizing Formative Research Methods and Human-Centred Approaches to Design and Strengthen Interventions to Improve Micronutrient Intake
17 October 2023, 10.30am - 12.00pm
Amazon Hall
Eva Monterrosa (Sr. Programme Manager, GAIN) and Wendy Gonzalez (Senior Technical Specialist, GAIN) will present research findings from GAIN's Vegetables4All program in Kenya.
The Impact Pathways for Climate Change and Nutrition Resilience: What is the Evidence?
17 October 2023, 10.30am - 12.00pm
Yangtze Hall
Noora-Lisa Aberman (Senior Technical Specialist) will present on driving resiliency through gender transformation in this session.
Greening Nutrition: Integrating Environment Considerations into Nutrition Programmes
17 October, 12.30-13.30pm
Yangtze Hall
This Learning Center aims to delve into the challenges and opportunities that organizations face when navigating the complexities of incorporating an environmental lens into programmes with a primary nutrition focus. It provides an opportunity to generate in-depth discussions around
- framing used to position the role of environment within nutrition organisations and their programmes; and
- tools, resources, and strategies that can help advance integration of environmental lens into nutrition, including engagement with the environmental sector.
The GAIN environment team is the lead organizer of this learning centre.
Guided interpretation of the global fortification data exchange (GFDX)
17 October, 12.30-13.30pm
Onyx Hall
This Learning Centrre will provide hands-on, guided interpretation of the Global Fortification Data Exchange (GFDx). This open-source, visual database (www.fortificationdata.org) offers an array of information on mandatory and voluntary food fortification programs for maize flour, oil, salt, rice, and wheat flour. During the learning session, the GFDx Secretariat will provide data challenges to showcase the vast analytical and visualization features the GFDx has to offer.
Florencia Vasta (Senior Associate, Food Policy and Finance) is one of the co-organizers of this learning centre.
Bridging Implementation and Science: Lessons Learned in Designing and Delivering Micronutrient Programs for Impact and Scale
17 October 2023, 1.45-3.15pm
Amazon Hall
GAIN's Director of Knowledge Leadership Mdudzi Mbuya chairs this session. Speakers from GAIN include Rudaba Khondker (Country Director GAIN, Bangladesh) presenting on business models for delivering multiple micronutrient supplements for pregnant women through pharmacy networks in Bangladesh; Wendy Gonzalez (Senior Technical Specialist) presenting on crowdsourcing as a tool for implementation, focusing on work from Indonesia and Kenya, and Sofia Costa from Universidade Lúrio (UniLúrio), Mozambique will be presenting findings from an implementation study on increasing access to animal-source foods in northern Mozambique, and others.
Sponsored session: The importance of understanding diet and food affordability for resilience and food security
17 October 2023, 3.30-5.00pm
Amazon Hall
Co-hosted by GAIN, Save the Children and World Food Programme, this session will discuss the application of approaches to assess and monitor the cost of nutritious diets, the use of modelling tools and program evidence on impact of interventions on diet affordability, and the range of prevention and response interventions like large-scale food fortification to improve affordability of diets and household resilience to future crises.
DAY 3
Leveraging Opportunities within Food Systems to Deliver Healthy Diets and Ensure Micronutrient Resilience
18 October, 10:30 am -12 pm
Yangtze Hall
Saul Morris, Director of Programme Services, will present on how to improve food systems infrastructure for delivering healthy diets.
Sponsored session: Reaching lower-income consumers with nutritious foods: strategies, evidence and innovations
18 October, 3.30-5.00pm
Amazon Hall
This session, chaired by GAIN's Director of Programme Services Dr. Saul Morris, discusses approaches companies use to reach lower-income consumers in LMICs with food products, evidence for their effectiveness, and real-world examples. The session will highlight a variety of different business models that have potential to reach lower-income consumers with nutritious foods, and hear practical, real-world examples and case studies. The session will discuss challenges with marketing more nutritious foods, specifically, including issues with labelling and low willingness to pay.
Presenting in this session will be Stella Nordhagen (Senior Technical Specialist, GAIN), Penjani Mkambula (Sr. Cluster Lead, GAIN) and others.
DAY 4
Translating global moments into national progress – how will we use the WHA resolution on food fortification to accelerate efforts to combat micronutrient malnutrition?
19 October 2023, 12.30-13.30
Amazon Hall
At the 2023 World Health Assembly (WHA) the global nutrition community joined forces with disability rights and global health advocates to pass a WHA resolution calling on member states to accelerate the use of large-scale food fortification to prevent micronutrient deficiencies and their consequences, including birth defects such as spina bifida.
In this learning centre session we will discuss lessons learned from the campaign, including practices we would repeat and things we would do different if given the chance. The second half of the session will engage in a discussion of how the WHA food fortification resolution can contribute to existing national efforts to strengthen national food fortification programs.
The GAIN fortification team, together with partner organizations, organizes this learning centre.
Are Nutrient Profiling Systems Fit for Purpose with Respect to Ranking Micronutrients
19 October, 1:45-3:15 pm
Amazon Hall
Ty Beal, Research Advisor, is the chair of this session and Flaminia Ortenzi, Research Associate, will present on Food Composition Data.
DAY 5
Climate Change and Nutrition
20 October, 8.30-10.00am
King Willem Alexander Hall
Catherine Lok, analyst at GAIN, will be part of the panel discussion during this session.