GAIN Celebrates World MSME Day 2026
- Global
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises are essential to the food systems people rely on every day. They grow, process, transport, market, and sell nutritious foods helping make healthier diets more available, affordable, and accessible. This World MSME Day, GAIN is spotlighting the MSMEs, entrepreneurs, partners, and employers shaping stronger food systems and healthier communities.
Strengthening Family-Led Business Governance: Lessons from Two N3F African Poultry Portfolio SMEs
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, most SMEs producing nutritious foods are family-owned enterprises. Often built from modest beginnings, these businesses play an important role in food systems by creating jobs, supporting rural economies, and expanding access to safe and affordable nutritious foods. As these companies grow, the demands for strengthening and streamlining their corporate governance and management structures increase significantly.
Integrating Nutrition Into Occupational Chemical Safety Standards
- 21/05/2026
The health effects of chemical exposure depend not only on the hazard itself, but also on the body’s capacity to defend, adapt, and recover. This varies between individuals and is strongly shaped by nutritional status, making nutrition a foundational determinant of occupational health risk. Adequate nutrition supports immune function, metabolic regulation, tissue repair, and detoxification processes. Sufficient energy, protein, essential minerals, micronutrients, and antioxidants are required for the body to maintain physiological stability and respond effectively to harmful substances. When these nutritional needs are met, workers are better equipped to withstand and recover from ongoing occupational exposures.
Nourishing Progress: Three Years of Action on WHA76.19. Accelerating Efforts to Prevent Micronutrient Deficiencies and Their Consequences Through Safe and Effective Food Fortification
- 15/05/2026
In May 2023, every Member State at the World Health Assembly resolved to accelerate safe and effective foodfortification. Nourishing Progress highlights meaningful progress, growing momentum and emerging opportunities since the resolution's adoption, and the growing coalition of governments, industry, patient associations, and health professionals driving this agenda forward. Anchored in a landmark Lancet Global Health analysis modeling the current and potential impact of large-scale food fortification programs, the report celebrates the progress made since the 2023 WHA resolution and outlines the growing global momentum towards transformative impact.
Beyond Safety Gear: Nutrition Protects Workers
- 14/05/2026
Chemical exposure is a growing occupational health concern as industrialization and technological change increase workers’ contact with hazardous substances. While occupational safety and health frameworks focus on managing exposure, they do not fully address chemicals that accumulate in the body and weaken immune function. Chemical exposure and poor nutrition can reinforce each other, increasing vulnerability to illness Integrating workforce nutrition into chemical risk management strengthens resilience, supports immunity, and provides an additional layer of protection for workers.
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Developing Food Safety Guidelines Specific to the Needs of Traditional Markets
- 24/04/2026
Ensuring access to safe food is one of the core goals of food systems, yet millions of people worldwide get sick from unsafe food every year. This case study examines the development and adoption of international guidelines for food safety – specific to the traditional markets where many lower-income-country consumers buy their food. It shows how considering the needs and challenges of specific contexts when formulating guidelines or more formal policies can make for a more equitable enabling environment for food system transformation.
GAIN Working Paper n°69: Supporting Nutrition to Foster Staff Wellbeing
- 20/04/2026
Many adults spend most of their waking hours at the workplace, making the latter a strategic, yet underappreciated, environment for health and well-being interventions. In the context of food systems, an impactful change that can be fostered through workplaces is improved nutrition through workforce nutrition (WFN) programmes. However, the process of gaining support for such programmes and the potential for having employers lead their design and uptake remain underexamined.
GAIN Working Paper n°68: Youth Collective Action as a Catalyst for Food System Transformation
- 08/04/2026
Young people represent a critical yet underutilised force in transforming food systems. By actively engaging youth in transformation processes, they can co-lead initiatives, shape agendas, and influence policymakers to address their priorities and make decision-making more inclusive. Collective action is a powerful mechanism through which young people organise around shared food systems priorities to generate sustained pressure for policy change while building capacity for long-term engagement in governance processes. However, despite the growing visibility of youth-led movements, the pathways through which young people’s collective voices shape and become institutionalised within national food and nutrition policies remain underexamined, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
GAIN Working Paper n°67: Building Youth Leadership For Food Systems Transformation
- 08/04/2026
Globally, the youth population is rapidly growing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where food systems are central to livelihoods and significantly influence nutritional outcomes. Despite this, young people remain underrepresented in food systems policy and decision-making processes. Addressing this gap requires youth leadership programmes that integrate systems thinking, cross-sectoral collaboration, and experiential learning to better prepare young people for meaningful engagement in food systems transformation. This case study explores how a youth leadership programme implemented in Arusha, Tanzania, enhanced young people’s ability to influence food policy processes, advocate for inclusive reforms, and drive meaningful change in their communities.