As a follow-on to the core report ‘The Case for Investment in Nutritious Food Value Chains: An Opportunity for Gender Impact’, GAIN and SAGANA are publishing the nine case studies showcasing the business and impact case for gender-smart nutrition investments.
While improved nutrition is central to achieving many development goals, investment in nutrition currently falls far short of what is needed. One group of actors that could potentially help address this is development finance institutions (DFIs): specialised financial organisations that promote sustainable development by providing capital, usually for private-sector-led projects. DFIs seem like promising actors to support nutrition: they are already active in low- and middle-income countries, invest in adjacent sectors like agriculture, and have large financial resources. However, to date DFIs have not been very active in investing in nutrition-supporting businesses and funds. This paper seeks to understand the barriers to investment in nutrition-related projects and develop concrete solutions to unlock funding through a mapping of DFIs’ approaches combined with in-depth interviews with several DFI representatives.
ACT4FOOD was launched as a global youth-led movement to transform food systems, with a pledge to encourage millions of young people to create sustainable food systems and more opportunistically to get involved in the UNFSS and to bring their demands to the decision-making table.
In 2021, more than 3.1 billion people in the world – or 42 per cent of the global population – were unable to afford a healthy diet. Tea workers and farmers, predominantly women, often contend with high rates of malnutrition due to diets lacking essential nutrients. Healthy Diets for Tea Communities is a public-private collaboration between the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Ethical Tea Partnership and eight leading tea companies which aims to promote healthy diets in tea supply chains in India, Malawi, and Kenya. Between 2020 and 2023, the programme reached 734,075 people, increasing the percentage of women in the programme eating minimally diverse, nutritious diets – 5 out of 10 food groups – in all three countries. The documents below summarise the programme’s impact in Assam, Kenya and Malawi.
The youth leadership initiative is a platform for young individuals aged 18-25 to actively participate in food systems decision-making. This initiative aims to provide opportunities for young people to have a voice and influence in the decisions that shape food systems, especially national food systems pathways.
The youth leadership initiative is a platform for young individuals aged 18-25 to actively participate in food systems decision-making. This initiative aims to provide opportunities for young people to have a voice and influence in the decisions that shape food systems, especially national food systems pathways.
This facilitator handbook is a key resource in this process, offering structured support and inspiration. The handbook provides you with suggested plans and sessions but is designed to be used flexibly, with each facilitator selecting the most relevant exercises for them and adding their own content and expertise, and on the group, context, time and mode of delivery you have available. Activities in this guide are suitable for groups of 20 - 30 young people and can be delivered both online an in person.
The purpose of this assessment tool is to gather data from vendors, consumers, and key stakeholders in traditional markets to identify food safety challenges and perceptions. This information helps design effective behaviour change interventions to enhance food safety practices. The tool includes methods for comprehensive data collection through interviews, observations, and discussions.
This report demonstrates that investing in nutritious food value chains allows investors to achieve significant gender impact. The hope is that more funding will be unlocked for nutritious food value chains, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which critically lack access to financing in emerging markets.
Environmental factors impact human health and nutrition through various pathways, and these impacts can be felt disproportionately by already vulnerable groups like women and children.
