27 March 2025 | ACAST
The Politics of Ending Malnutrition - Challenging Conversations with Decision Makers
Project Manager, Large Scale Food Fortification - SYS-1277
Location
Abuja, Nigeria
Contract Type
Fixed Term
Duration
24 Months
Intern, Communications and Social Media (Children and Young People) - SYS-1276
Location
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Contract Type
Intern
Duration
6 Months
Sowing Success: The Journey of High Iron Beans in Tanzania
In Tanzania, 85- 90% of the land is cultivated by smallholder farmers majority of whom face challenges in getting access to quality seeds and assured markets for their produce, thus limiting their capabilities to produce quality produce and generate steady income. Currently, 57% of pregnant women in Tanzania are anemic. Additionally, according to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey 2015 (TDHS), 58% of children under the age of 5 years in the country were anemic.World Health Assembly Nutrition Targets
WHA Global Nutrition Stunting Target 2012-2025 : Achieve a 40% reduction in the number of children under-5 who are stunted
WHA Global Nutrition Overweight Target 2012-2025: Ensure that there is no increase in childhood overweight
GAIN Working Paper n°52 WHA Nutrition Targets
Stunting and overweight in children under five years of age remain major malnutrition challenges in the 12 countries in Africa and Asia where GAIN operates: Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. These forms of malnutrition appear in two of the six Global Nutrition Targets of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which are meant to be achieved by 2025. This paper evaluates progress towards these two WHA goals in these 12 countries, identifies lessons learned, and offers actionable insights for evidence-based policymaking.
While some countries have successfully reduced stunting and overweight, overall progress, particularly on stunting, remains slow. Using globally accepted methodologies, we find that of the 12 countries studied only Kenya is on track to meet the WHA stunting target by 2025, while the other 11 countries are classified as off track, having made some progress. For child overweight, nine countries, namely Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda are on track, while the remaining three are off track.
Through deep dives into selected cases, this paper emphasises the need for multi-sectoral approaches, strong political commitment, and targeted interventions. A shift towards integrated, data-driven, and context-specific solutions is crucial.
Accelerated, evidence-based action must be taken. This includes highlighting where efforts need to concentrate, guiding policy and programme adjustments, and enabling more targeted interventions to help countries achieve and surpass the reductions in child stunting and the limitations on the rates of child overweight embodied in the WHA 2025 nutrition targets.
Stunting and Overweight in Children Under Five
Factsheets Tracking Progress Toward WHA 2025 Nutrition Targets in the 12 Countries
A new ‘Whey’ to boost Pakistan’s dairy industry!
Whey to Value: Effective Whey management practices can boost dairy business and reduce environmental footprint. Livestock is a major contributor to Pakistan's agricultural economy with a steady growth driven by pricing, demand, and innovation. The market has grown by 3.89% in the fiscal year 2023–2024 , accounting for roughly 60.84% of the value contributed to agriculture and making up a hefty 14.63% of the nation's GDP during FY2024 .Nutrition Impact at Scale (NIS)
GAIN’s NIS Project supports organizations and small businesses across six countries to integrate nutrition into food systems and improve outcomes.
GAIN’s NIS Project uses a Market Systems Development approach to improve food systems and increase inclusivity and nutrition outcomes. It leverages the extensive experience GAIN has developed over the years of providing quality technical assistance, networking, knowledge sharing, building partner capacity, and providing various tools and resources to MSMEs to attach a ‘nutrition lens’ to the work of ESOs in Nigeria, Benin, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Kenya.
By engaging with ESOs, the project ultimately achieves the following outcomes:
ESOs adopt a nutrition lens in their MSME support strategies.
ESOs integrate tools, knowledge, and resources developed by GAIN to support MSMEs.
ESOs understand the impact of MSMEs on food systems and how to invest in nutrition-focused enterprises.
Alliances of local partners on MSME programming will be operational in GAIN countries.
We will achieve these outcomes by implementing the following key approaches:
Enhancing the capacity of ESOs to provide nutrition-focused technical support to MSMEs.
Facilitating ESOs to access a wide range of tools and resources.
Creating alliances by connecting ESOs to industry peers to facilitate knowledge exchange.
Providing access to a network of business & industry leaders for business-to-business mentorship.
Interactive map
Nigeria
Ikore International
Incorporated in 2018, Ikore is an International Development Organization offering innovative solutions to promote sustainable social and enterprise development across Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Expected Outcomes
Support 150 MSMEs to:
- Enhance efficiency, leadership, and management skills through specialized training.
- Facilitate direct connections with buyers (e.g., supermarkets, hotels, distributors).
- Improve broader market access which will lead to a 10% and 20% sales increase in year 1 and 2.
- Prepare them for financial literacy and matchmaking, with access to debt and non-debt funding.
- Boost production of safe, nutritious foods by 30%, achieving 15% product volume growth in year 1 and 30% in year 2.
Inspire Decisions
Incorporated in 2016, Inspire Decisions Consulting Limited (IDC) is a rapidly growing development firm that supports international donors, donor-funded projects, and public and private sector organisations in achieving their development goals and performance targets.
Expected Outcomes
- 20% annual increase in the volume and sales of specific nutritious food products.
- Integrating a nutrition focus into the business models of over 100 MSMEs.
- Reach over 1,000 MSMEs, partners, and low-middle-income Nigerians through EPIC's knowledge-sharing activities.
- Increase over US$20,000 investments in funding for production capacities allocated for MSMEs to nutrition-focused business models
Kenya
Nakuru Box
Nakuru Box, founded in 2019, is an innovation hub that provides a collaborative and professional space for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and startups.
Expected Outcomes
- Increase in sales among the trained MSMEs.
- Attain a 70% increase in safe and nutritious foods in the markets served by the participants.
- Increase enrolment in the additional nutrition programs introduced.
- Support 30% of the participants expand operations into other markets.
Afriscope
Afriscope Research Limited, founded in 2015, is a leading Afrocentric institution dedicated to helping small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) thrive through specialized business advisory services.
Expected Outcomes
- Directly impact 150 MSMEs producing nutritious foods.
- De-risk 5 Lead Firms for bankability.
- Sustainable production of 621 tonnes of nutritious foods within 12 months.
- Provide grant support to 5 MSMEs to help them facilitate the inclusive contract farming (ICF) model.
Mozambique
Gapi Sociedade de Investimentos (Gapi-SI)
Gapi-SI is a Development Financial Institution (DFI) registered with the Bank of Mozambique under the Investment Company (SI) category, with over three decades of experience in development financing
Expected Outcomes
- Support 1,080 youth entrepreneurs in 12 districts (Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula) through 9 business incubation cycles over 48 months.
- Train and mentor 150 agrifood SMEs to adopt sustainable, nutrition-sensitive, and food safety-compliant practices across five value chains: fruits & vegetables, dairy, fish, poultry, and fortified staple foods.
- Facilitate a 30% increase in production and sales of nutritious foods among supported SMEs.
- Enable 60 SMEs to access financing (grants, credit, equity), unlocking USD 2 million in growth capital.
- Achieve 20% sales growth across SMEs by year 2, supported by over 50 new market and distribution linkages.
- Launch a Digital Nutrition Information Channel providing AI-powered, multilingual dietary and business guidance to rural communities and SMEs.
- Ensure 60% of supported SMEs meet improved food safety standards, including HACCP and quality certifications.
- Create at least 200 new jobs, with intentional inclusion of youth and women.
- Promote knowledge exchange, post-incubation mentorship, and cross-SME learning forums to embed sustainability and continuous improvement
AfriscopeI nstituto para a Promoção das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (IPEME)
The Instituto para a Promoção das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (IPEME) is a Mozambican public institution established in 2008 under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to support the growth and development of small enterprises.
Expected Outcomes
- 80 MSMEs trained in nutrition, business strategies, and financial management.
- Improved production of safe and nutritious foods.
- MSMEs are equipped with business models that they can use to reach lower consumers with safe and nutritious foods.
Benin
Groupe REPONSE
Groupe REPONSE is a consulting firm founded in 2021. It specialises in business affairs, organisation, quality management, and food safety. Based in Benin and operating independently, it focuses on implementing progress-driven approaches to sustainably improve the quality and performance of individuals and organisations.
Expected Outcomes
- Support 35 MSMEs to improve the formulation, nutritional analysis, packaging, and profitability of their products.
- Obtain authorisation for market entry of their products, including Authorisation de Mise sur le Marché (AMM) and Certification de Qualité.
- Gain access to markets and sell their products with the support of 3 MSMEs specialised in local product distribution.
Université d'Abomey-Calavi
Founded in 1961, the Université d'Abomey-Calavi (UAC) is Benin's first and largest public university. UAC's primary missions include training executives, conducting scientific research, and contributing to the country's economic development.
Expected Outcomes
- A comprehensive toolbox to raise awareness of food and nutritional security is made available to MSMEs and ESOs.
- 30 MSMEs are trained, with 10 receiving targeted support for product development and market access.
- MSMEs overcome technical challenges and gain access to markets for nutritious and safe products.
Uganda
African Women Agri-business Network (AWAN)
AWAN is a membership organisation that focuses on advancing the socio-economic status of women through the promotion of a gender-inclusive Agri-food value chain. The organisation has 300 members, all women entrepreneurs operating in agri-food value chains.
Partnership Areas
- Capacity Building
- Access to Finance
- Access to Market
- Social Behaviour Change & Communication Campaign
- Policy and Advocacy
Expected Outcomes
- 200 women-owned MSMEs adopt nutrition-sensitive business models.
- 20% increase in production of nutritious foods by women-owned MSMEs by August 2026.
- 20% increase in sales volumes of nutritious food by women-owned MSMEs by August 2026.
- 200 women-owned MSMEs access financial and non-financial business development services in Uganda.
Community Women's Enterprise Network Uganda (CWEN)
Founded in 2014, CWEN is a non-profit organisation that provides business information, mentorship, and technical support. It leverages partnerships and linkages for rural and urban youth and women entrepreneurs in Uganda to reach greater markets, create growing revenues, and promote their businesses with a focus on value addition and skills development.
Expected Outcomes
- Train at least 85% of youth and women-led MSMEs to adopt new nutritional product knowledge, practices, and sustainable production methods in their operations.
- At least 30% of the trained Youth and Women MSMEs will acquire UNBS (Uganda National Bureau of Standards) Quality Mark certification for their nutritious food products by the end of the project.
- Increased rate of trained MSMEs reporting growth in sales and market share for their food products.
- Adoption of eco-friendly packaging materials by trained MSMEs.
Ethiopia
Coming Soon
ESO Related Videos
Uganda: Nutrition Impact at Scale (NIS) Project / Kampala Cohort
Mozambique: Programa NIS impulsiona segurança alimentar e nutrição em Moçambique - Rafael Nzucule
Nutrition Impact at Scale Profile and Publications
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Mercy Olorunfemi
Project Manager, Nutrition Impact at Scale, GAIN
Daisy Otieno
Project Coordinator, Nutrition Impact at Scale, GAIN
Diagnosing Food Systems Policy Coherence:
A Toolkit Supporting the Design of More Coherent Food Policies
Food systems policy coherence is the alignment of policies that affect the food system with the aim of achieving health, environmental, social, and economic goals, to ensure that policies designed to improve one food system outcome do not undermine others and, where possible, take advantage of synergies across policy areas to achieve better outcomes for all.
Policy coherence is fundamental for effective food systems transformation. Policy incoherence can lead to inefficiency and lower likelihood of achieving policy goals, as well as missed opportunities for leveraging synergies across policy areas where they exist. As governments worldwide increasingly recognise the interconnected nature of food systems issues, there is growing acknowledgment of the need for more coherent policies: policies designed to improve one food systems outcome must not inadvertently undermine others but instead reinforce them.
Despite this need, assessing the extent of coherence in a country’s food policy landscape is challenging. GAIN, in collaboration with AKADEMIYA2063, thus created a standardised, relatively easy-to-use tool for doing so.
This toolkit, which has been tested in multiple countries in Africa and Asia, offers a practical methodology to assess food systems policy coherence and provide actionable recommendations for enhancing it.
The Food Systems Policy Coherence Diagnostic Tool consists of two modules:
- Module 1 examines whether there are structures and mechanisms in place that would increase the likelihood of achieving policy coherence, such as whether a country has a cross-sectoral food systems policy or pathway and ongoing mechanisms for cross-sectoral coordination on food issues.
- Module 2 considers the actual conflicts and synergies between existing policies, focusing on the achievement of six key goals of food system transformation, drawn from the UN Food Systems Summit process, as shown at left.
The tool is completed by reviewing key policy documents and consulting with key informants, followed by stakeholder validation and ongoing engagement to craft locally relevant, actionable recommendations for improving policy coherence.
Accompanied by a user’s manual, scoring guidelines, and examples, the toolkit aims to provide a ready-to-use, feasible, and actionable way to understand policy coherence.
While achieving perfect coherence among all food-related policies across all outcomes is unlikely—and potentially undesirable, given the costs associated with coordination and alignment—by identifying and managing critical synergies and trade-offs, governments can better align efforts towards achieving key goals.
Partners
The findings, ideas, and conclusions presented in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of any of the agencies mentioned below.
Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) Project
One MMS a Day and a Healthy Baby is on the Way
Micronutrient deficiency is a major risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes, which are the strongest predictor of malnutrition in childhood. Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) support adequate nutrient status in pregnancy and have been shown to reduce the prevalence of low birth weight, preterm birth, stillbirths, infants born small for gestational age (SGA), and 6-month infant mortality.
The project is funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), aims to establish a sustainable social business model for Multiple Micronutrient Supplements for pregnant women through pharmacy networks in Bangladesh. By 2024, the project has successfully reached 900,000 pregnant women and is targeting an additional 1.5 million pregnant women by 2028. GAIN is implementing the initiative in collaboration with SMC—social marketing company operating through over 23,000 Star Network providers across the country — alongside technical partner by Sight and Life (SAL) and the Government of Bangladesh. This public-private partnership collaborates closely to ensure evidence-based design of the programme and supports improvements in antenatal care and MMS uptake more broadly.
GAIN's MMS project currently encompasses the following synergistic work areas:
i) Quality local Production and availability:
Ensuring quality local production and distribution through SMC’s extensive franchise pharmacy network and healthcare providers, to make Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (Brand name: ‘FullCare’) accessible to every pregnant woman in Bangladesh.
ii) Demand Generation:
Use evidence-based promotional techniques, such as scientific seminars to build capacity healthcare providers and pharmacists on MMS health benefits. This is complemented by in-store product activation, evidence-based sales pitches, and merchandising to raise consumer awareness and value for MMS use.
iii) Enabling Environment to shape policy around MMS:
Through a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) influence policy, set standards, ensure high-quality local MMS production, and advocate for its inclusion in Bangladesh’s Essential Medicines List and national guidelines. Additionally, the National Technical Committee (NTC) led by the National Nutrition Services (NNS) provides technical and strategic direction for the program and advocates for MMS inclusion in various policies and guidelines.
iv) Scaling up Market-based Model:
By the Year 2028, MMS 2.0 aims to increase the sales and demand for multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), increase adherence, and establish a sustainable, market-based model driven by increasing sales margins and cost reduction. The initiative targets annual sales exceeding 40 million tablets, aiming to reach between 300,000 and 500,000 pregnant women—representing 10% to 18% of pregnancies in Bangladesh. The project will cover 41% of the total pharmacy network, including the SMC Star Network, and will implement community-based antenatal care (ANC) services across 137 Upazilas (sub-districts), reaching over 200,000 pregnant women. Through these efforts, the cost per woman for ANC services and MMS is expected to reduce from USD 13.07 to USD 4.03 by 2028. Furthermore, MMS is expected to be fully integrated into national policies, including the National Plan of Action on Nutrition (NPAN3), the 2nd National Nutrition Program (NNP) and the Essential Medicines List (EML), ensuring long-term impact and sustainability.
