Compact2025 News in Brief: September 18, 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.

World Bank and UNICEF call for a new approach to address child undernutrition in Vietnam

As Vietnam prepares its Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021-30, the World Bank and UNICEF are working with the government to tackle the prevalence of undernutrition among children and recommend several policy actions. These include securing adequate and predictable financing for nutrition-related programs, building multisectoral plans to address the underlying determinants of undernutrition, and scaling up evidence-based interventions.

Reducing barriers to diagnosis and treatment of acute malnutrition

Two studies in a PLOS Medicine special issue on maternal and child health and nutrition explore the impact of interventions aimed at reducing barriers to treatment of acute malnutrition in Burkina Faso and Mali. They find that integrating preventative nutrition interventions into acute malnutrition screening increases participation in monthly screenings and providing nutrient supplements during monthly screening improves screening coverage and reduces the incidence of acute malnutrition. However, both studies conclude that further research is needed to address other barriers to the correct diagnosis and treatment of acute malnutrition and uptake of services.

Lasting impacts on Vitamin A intakes through orange sweet potatoes in Mozambique

A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition finds lasting impacts three years after a biofortification project introduced vitamin A orange sweet potatoes to farmers in Mozambique. Researchers found that vitamin A intakes remain higher in treated villages than in control villages among both children under 3 years old, who had not been born when the original intervention ended, and among mothers of child-bearing age.

Clearing house for digital innovations in food systems

The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture has launched the Digital Innovations in Food Systems Evidence Clearing House. This online tool consolidates impact evidence from digital food system interventions around the world and allows users to monitor trends in the digital innovation sphere.

Supermarkets and the diets of the urban poor in Africa

Supermarkets are on the rise in Africa, but their role for the diets of the urban poor is still limited. A study in Food Security analyzes the diets and food purchasing patterns of poor urban consumers in Kenya and Uganda and shows: in Nairobi, slum households spend less than 5 percent of their total food budget in supermarkets; in Kampala the share is even lower at less than 1 percent, suggesting that a focus on the modern retail sector will not suffice to ensure food and nutrition security for all.

Botswana joins Compact2025 as focal country

Compact2025 is pleased to announce its engagement with Botswana as a Focal Country committed to accelerating progress to end hunger and malnutrition. Members of the Compact2025 team will visit key country stakeholders in the coming weeks to prepare for the Botswana Roundtable Discussion scheduled for late 2019.

Preparing for the 2019 Climate Action Summit

In the lead-up to the 2019 Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, the Global Commission on Adaptation released a report on the imperative for action to adapt to climate change. As a research partner for the report, IFPRI is raising awareness with a video, an event on September 19, and a blog series on the need for more research and investment, better tools and practices, and new approaches to meet this challenge.

Online course: Adolescent nutrition and anemia

Nutrition International has launched a 15-module online course on adolescent nutrition and anemia. Starting on September 12, videos for each section will be released every two weeks.

Why the first thousand days matter most

A blog post by researchers from IFPRI and NITI Aayog, India, explores how data on co-coverage of nutrition interventions can be used to plan for and assess the success of efforts to strengthen “effective convergence,” which is the successful reach of nutrition-related programs from relevant sectors to address the key determinants of poor nutrition for the same household, same woman, and same child in the first 1,000 days from conception until the child’s second birthday.

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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