Choosing the right type of foods at the point of purchase or consumption is an important way to improve quality of diets. The idea of using on-pack visual cues or symbols to guide food choices has existed for quite some time, but less is known about the effectiveness of such schemes in resource-poor countries.
As the 2016 Global Panel Report on Food Systems and Diets noted, average households in nearly all countries in the world acquire the majority of their food from the market. Most of these purchases are of packaged foods. In addition, we know that the sales of processed foods are flat in high-income countries while increasing in middle-income countries.
At GAIN, over the last six months we’ve been building a new Nutritious Foods Financing programme starting in East Africa. The potential of the programme is becoming increasingly exciting as data becomes available showing the scope and viability of SMEs to deliver more nutritious foods, if appropriate private investments are unlocked.
I just returned from a trip to Islamabad to meet the GAIN team and some of our partners. I’m no expert on Pakistan, but compared to 2013, the commitment to accelerate reductions in malnutrition seems to have increased significantly. Nutrition is reported to be much more prominent in the next 5 year draft National Development Plan which is waiting to be ratified by the new Government elected in late July.
Food safety issues have almost no visibility. This is very strange on both counts. As the presentations at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences – GAIN technical workshop in the Vatican made clear, food safety threats are on the rise as food systems modernise but the capacity to control those risks lags behind.
Since 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has inspired a new way of working collaboratively to end malnutrition–in all its forms. And yet, 1000 days into the SDG era, no high-income country has become a member of the SUN Movement. Why does this matter? Joining SUN will help high-income countries achieve greater coherence in their battle against malnutrition.
On 28 and 29 September 2018, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Netherlands office organised GAIN’s first student challenge. In small teams, more than 40 students from 10 Dutch universities, with 15 nationalities and more than 20 different academic backgrounds competed against each other to come up with creative ideas to be implemented in one of GAIN’s current projects.
Food businesses are governed by many food laws and sometimes this doesn’t stand out as an enabling environment for trading in Kenya. Businesses are required to work with a multiple of regulators to ensure that they are compliant to food standards. The number of licences required to run a food business are many and all of them cost a fortune.
GAIN and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) are to team up to work to advance their shared vision of creating sustainable food systems in Africa. GAIN Executive Director, Lawrence Haddad and AGRA President, Dr Agnes Kalibata signed the Memorandum of Understanding paving the way for the partnership at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Nutrition Africa Investor Forum will highlight business opportunities in a largely underdeveloped market. From farm to fork, nutrient gaps in diets within low and middle-income markets constitute a largely untapped market worth USD 120bn.
