Compact2025 News in Brief: April 3, 2019

To accelerate progress to end hunger and undernutrition around the world, the News in Brief informs partners on emerging research and innovation, developments in global, regional, and national policies and programs, and timely news and events. Please feel free to share any feedback at IFPRI-Compact2025@cgiar.org. Find the latest developments in Compact2025 here.

A nutrition primer for policymakers

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has published a policy primer on global nutrition. It serves as a nutrition 101 for policymakers with key terms, interventions, and target cohorts and a landscape overview of the priority issues in global nutrition, important players, and the U.S. government’s investments.

Revitalization of rural areas essential to achieve the SDGs

IFPRI’s 2019 Global Food Policy Report explores the potential of rural revitalization to improve rural lives and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Experts conclude that rural revitalization is timely, achievable, and, most important, critical to ending hunger and malnutrition in just over a decade.

Managing water for a nutritious food future

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs report “From Scarcity to Security: Managing Water for a Nutritious Food Future,”—authored by IFPRI Research Fellow Emeritus Mark Rosegrant and co-chaired by Ertharin Cousin and A.G. Kawamura—examines how the world can best grow the food that we need to feed a rapidly growing, urbanizing world in the face of increasing water insecurity.

Over 100 million people faced acute hunger in 2018

According to the Global Report on Food Crises 2019, more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger in 2018 driven primarily by conflict and insecurity, climate shocks, and economic turbulence. The report—coordinated by the Food Security Information Network, a global technical platform co-sponsored by FAO, WFP, and IFPRI—was launched during the two-day high-level event “Food and agriculture in times of crisis” hosted by the European Commission on behalf of the Global Network Against Food Crises.

Supporting healthy diets and food systems in Ethiopia

An analysis of Ethiopia’s agricultural production from 2011–2015 shows that national food production increased dramatically over the 5-year period and nutrient production gaps substantially decreased. However, production growth came primarily from the cereal sector at the expense of other food groups and led to a decrease in production diversity. The authors call for more emphasis on diversification to support healthy and nutritionally diversified diets.

Agricultural trade policies and child nutrition

A cross-national analysis of government policies on agricultural trade prices and child nutrition finds that government assistance to tradable agriculture—such as through reduced taxation—was associated with small but significant improvements in child nutritional status. This is especially the case for children with a parent earning wages in agriculture when the share of tradable agriculture was not high.

Cyclone Idai harms food security in Malawi

An IFPRI blog post assesses how Cyclone Idai floods are impacting food security in Malawi, a Compact2025 focal country: rains and flooding will harm upcoming harvests, but it appears the country can avoid food grain shortages.

Without data, we are flying blind: Filling global dietary data gaps

A short video from Intake—a Center for Dietary Assessment at FHI 360—highlights how dietary data can be used to inform evidence-based nutrition and agriculture policies and programs in low- and middle-income countries.

How to harvest the positive impacts of crop biofortification

A HarvestPlus webinar on April 10 will share information on the program’s Biofortification Priority Index and present a new interactive website that makes the tool more versatile and accessible for users. The webinar will also include examples of how the index is being used by development practitioners.

Identifying and addressing bottlenecks in supplementation programs

On April 17, the Implementation Science Initiative project team will present their experience applying the principles of implementation science to iron-folic acid supplementation programs in Kenya and Uganda. The webinar is organized by the Society for Implementation Science in Nutrition.

Highlights from this and past Compact2025 News in Briefs, along with other key resources, can be found at the Compact2025 Knowledge & Innovation Hub resources page.

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