Compact2025 News in Brief: November 11, 2020

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.

African ministers commit to “raise ambitions and accelerate actions” to achieve food security

At the largest ever FAO Regional Conference for Africa, ministers from 48 countries committed to accelerate action towards achieving food security through transformation of African agri-food systems including innovation and digital technologies in agriculture.

Options to meet the potential of African agriculture

The 2020 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR)—released by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS)—focuses on the policies required to transform African agrifood systems to meet their potential. The report reviews the evolution of agricultural sector policies, assesses constraints on agricultural productivity, discusses policies for competitive value chains, and examines the enabling environment required for food system transformation.

Greater focus on enhancing affordable, nutritious diets in India

An article in Food Policy assesses the affordability of a diet satisfying India’s national dietary guidelines. The authors conclude that (1) diets are highly unaffordable, especially for women and (2) that a more holistic focus is needed on improving the affordability of nutritious food groups like a reappraisal of social protection schemes, sustained income growth for the poor, and more timely and transparent monitoring of food prices, incomes, and dietary costs.

Expanding cash transfers for nutrition in Yemen

In a podcast, IFPRI Research Fellow Sikandra Kurdi tells the story of how Yemen’s Social Fund for Development and IFPRI evaluated a project that gave cash transfers and nutrition education to women in rural Yemen. When civil war broke out across the country, the Social Fund kept the project going, and even expanded it: an exciting story on how nutrition interventions—and research to assess them—can still work in humanitarian settings.

Impacts and threats of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition, and options to respond

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the development community is working to understand how the crisis impacts food security, nutrition, and food systems:

IFPRI researchers estimate the economic costs of COVID-19 in Ghana: GDP fell by 27.9% during their lockdown period, while an additional 3.8 million Ghanaians temporarily became poor. See also IFPRI’s COVID-19 webpage for more evidence, blogs, tools, and events.
S. Mahendra Dev argues in a blog post that India’s COVID-19 relief package is an opportunity for long-delayed agricultural reforms for the country.
An Alive & Thrive article discusses the implications of COVID-19 for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and points out that mobile service delivery, virtual meetings, e-learning, and social media are ways nutrition practitioners are conducting research and delivering services during the pandemic.

Sustaining Africa’s food system transformation: the role of public policy

AKADEMIYA2063 and the African Union Commission (AUC) convened a virtual 2020 ReSAKSS Annual Conference to discuss the role of public policies in ensuring sustainable and resilient agrifood systems and their transformation in Africa. The conference discussed recommendations from the 2020 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR), reviewed lessons and actions necessary to transform Africa’s agri-food systems, examined ways to rebuild Africa’s food systems following the COVID-19 pandemic, and more.

Free training courses on nutrition programming and policy

Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy has created 10 free online certificate courses as part of the Feed the Future Ethiopia Growth through Nutrition Activity. The 1-2 hour training programs offer courses on key themes related to enhancing nutrition knowledge and informing policy and programming for multisectoral nutrition approaches in Ethiopia and other low and middle-income countries and award certificates after completion. The latest addition to the program is a course on COVID-19 and Nutrition, which explores the effects of the novel coronavirus on nutrition and the pandemic’s impact on global food security.

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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