GAIN and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have developed the “Nutritious Agriculture by Design : A Tool for Program Planning“ for assessing and improving the linkages between agriculture and nutrition. The tool was designed to be applied to existing and planned agricultural projects that primarily focus on:
- improving agricultural productivity; and
- raising the incomes of farm households, including the households of agricultural labour.
The tool aims to identify ways in which agricultural interventions can be made more nutrition-friendly and capturing nutritional outcomes and impacts through monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
The Program Planning Tool presents a practical framework in which the designers and implementers of agricultural interventions can reflect on the scope for achieving demonstrable nutritional impacts within and beyond the households with which they immediately engage. Application of the tool facilitates ‘thought processes’ in the minds of designers and implementers over whether more can be done to integrate nutrition into their agricultural interventions and raises questions about the assumptions made with respect to the likely nutritional consequences of their activities. This document presents a summary of the tool including its development, application, and areas for further action.