The Advisory and Technical Assistance Activities carried out by the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger Brazil include activities of programme and policy design and implementation; support to countries in transitioning WFP-operated programmes to local management; support to smallholder farmers’ access to supply chains and markets; and project preparation for accessing funds. The Centre of Excellence has also expanded its role in supporting actions to promote food and nutrition security. Other priority areas include promotion of partnerships in various spheres, including the public and private sectors, civil society, and universities; support to advocacy initiatives; and knowledge building and management, with a robust production of publications in several areas.

This report brings our organizations together again to reaffirm that, if we do not redouble and better target our efforts, our goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 will remain out of reach. Although the world is recovering from the global pandemic, this is occurring unevenly across and within countries. On top of this, the world is grappling with the consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has shaken food and energy markets. Agrifood systems remain highly vulnerable to shocks and disruptions arising from conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic contraction. These factors, combined with growing inequities, keep challenging the capacity of agrifood systems to deliver nutritious, safe and affordable diets for all. These major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition are our “new normal”. We have no option but to redouble our efforts to transform agrifood systems and leverage them towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) targets.

The 2023 edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean presents the main indicators of hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition in all its forms and those related to the cost and affordability of a healthy diet, in order to contribute to the analysis of food security and nutrition as fundamental pillars for the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the economic slowdown, rising food inflation and income inequality, have had an impact on regional figures. The most recent data shows that, between 2021and 2022, progress was made in reducing hunger and food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, the progress achieved is still far from the targets established to meet SDG 2 of ending hunger.

Agriculture is the backbone of many developing countries – it is essential for enhancing food security, reducing poverty, and improving nutrition. In Laos, small-scale farmers constitute the majority of the population. They face challenges such as poor soil fertility, limited market access, a lack of knowledge and resources to improve their farming practices, and are frequently exposed to natural disasters such as drought and floods. As a result, malnutrition is still prevalent and, on the national level, stunting affects 33 per cent of children under five years old. The Agriculture For Nutrition (AFN) project in Laos was initiated in 2016 to address these challenges by providing training and support to small-scale farmers in improving their agricultural practices, increasing food production, and combating malnutrition.

In Nigeria, malnutrition poses a significant challenge, costing the country billions of dollars each year in lost productivity alone. A clear link exists between nutrition and food systems, meaning that food systems transformation could help address this. Nigeria’s plan for the transformation of its food systems, presented after the landmark 2021United Nations Food Systems Summit, is proof of its strong political dedication to implementing impactful changes in the country’s food systems. Continued investment by the government of Nigeria in key areas including food security and nutrition and support for value chain and market systems, will be critical for the country’s journey towards building sustainable, responsive, and inclusive food systems.

Even after several decades of green revolution, malnutrition continues to be a major development challenge in much of South Asia, and India has a major share of the malnourished people in the region. The nutritional issues in India are complex and therefore require a multifaceted, multidisciplinary solution. One facet of the solutionis increasing knowledge about the causes of and solutions to malnutrition at the farmhousehold level through agricultural extension. Disseminating nutrition-sensitive agricultural knowledge is not currently an activity of agricultural extension in India, but there is great potential for integrating it through the well-established network of extension officers. For nutrition goals to be integrated into extension, the curricula provided to current and future agricultural extension agents must be revisited. As part of the South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (SAFANSI), this paper focuses on approaches to incorporating such nutrition content into the agricultural extension curriculum. Three state agricultural universities in Tamil Nadu, united Andhra Pradesh,and Bihar were used as case studies for the curriculum review.

Feed the Future’s EatSafe: Evidence and Action toward Safe, Nutritious Food (EatSafe) seeks to improve the safety of nutritious foods bought and sold by millions of people intraditional food markets in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), EatSafe’s formative research gathered existing evidence on the interplay among foodborne diseases, traditional markets, and behavior change.The scope of this review focused on traditional markets, which provide millions of people with nutrient-rich commodities like animal-source foods and fresh produce. However, these same foods are the leading cause of foodborne disease globally. The insights identified in this review were used to design EatSafe’s food safety interventions in three markets in Ethiopia and Nigeria. This synthesis brings together EatSafe’s formative research on food safety in food systems and insights into food safety concerns specific to traditional markets.

There is limited evidence of what types of food systems interventions work. Evaluating these types of interventions is challenging due to their complex and dynamic nature and lack of fit with standard evaluation methods. In this paper, we draw on a portfolio of six evaluations of food systems interventions in Africa and South Asia that were intended to improve nutrition. We identify key methodological challenges and formulate recommendations to improve the quality of such studies. We highlight five challenges: a lack of evidence base to justify the intervention; the dynamic and multifaceted nature of the interventions; addressing attribution; collecting or accessing accurate and timely data; and defining and measuring appropriate outcomes. In addition to more specific guidance, we identify six cross-cutting recommendations, including a need to use multiple and diverse methods and flexible designs. We also note that these evaluation challenges present opportunities to develop new methods and highlight several specific needs in this space.

In October 2018, the HLPE was asked by the CFS to prepare a report that takes stock of its contributions, in order to inform future CFS actions on FSN for all in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HLPE was asked to urgently prepare an issues paper on the potential impact of the pandemic on global food security and nutrition for an extraordinary meeting of the CFS on 19 March 2020. The key findings and recommendations from this issues paper have been updated and included in this report.

Malnutrition in all its forms, from undernutrition to micronutrient deficiencies and overnutrition, is a global public health burden. It is estimated that 2 in 3 women of reproductive age are affected by nutrient deficiencies. Uganda is a low-income country in which 41% of the population lives below the poverty line, and where about 82% of the population cannot afford a healthy diet. There is a continued need to engage all actors and options to address the malnutrition burden the world faces. On average, people spend one-third of their adult lives at work, whether formal or informal; therefore, the workplace offers an important opportunity to increase access to and knowledge about healthy nutrition. Workforce nutrition is an opportunity to deliver proven benefits for employers, workers, and communities. Policy frameworks often do not recognise the role of employers in enabling good nutrition for workers, even as part of labour policies. Further improved action in the policy arena would include explicitly mentioning the role of the employer and drafting, implementing and ensuring accountability mechanisms against these policies are in place.

Food systems are at the nexus of food security, nutritional health, ecosystems, climate change, and prosperity. Agricultural policies in India and South Asia have, to date, focused on increasing food production but have neglected the negative externalities on nutrition, natural capital, and biodiversity. A new paradigm on food system transformation is emerging using the concept of‘planetary boundaries’ in defining the ‘safe operating space’ for stability of the earth system and human health. Globally, the food system has been adapting to rapid population growth. However, more than 800 million people still have inadequate access to food – many of whom live in India. In addition, a growing share of the world population suffers from micronutrient deficiencies or is overweight or obese, leading to an increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases. India and, indeed, most countries in South Asia are now food surplus but not “nutrition secure”. Both availability and affordability of healthy and nutritious diets pose challenges for some of the most vulnerable in society. 

Lower-income populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often face challenges accessing affordable, desirable, safe, and nutritious food, contributing to poor diet quality and malnutrition. As the main source of food for the majority of this population, private-sector firms have the potential to play a key role in alleviating this – and if they can do profitably, could help their bottom line in the process. However, little is known about the specific approaches they can use for doing so, or about how effective those are. To help fill this gap, this study seeks to identify the business model features that companies use to reach lower-income consumers in LMICs with food products. This is done through a systematic review of research as well as a scoping review of real-world companies.

Food and Nutritional Security (FNS), understood as the availability and access to quality food, is fundamental for human development; The sustainability and progress of the agricultural sector are essential to maintain a food supply in quantity and quality. In the department of Córdoba, multidimensional poverty is twice as high for rural areas (51.9%) as compared to urban areas (23.3%). In that sense, rural producers boost the local economy, contribute to generating jobs and with SAN. Many of these producers are located in areas of difficult access, far from populated centers. Therefore, they face high costs in inputs and commercial animal feed diets, which end up increasing production costs. Under this context, the Ministry of National Education (MEN) and the University of Córdoba are linked to increase competitiveness and success in “integral farms.” In this initiative, alternative plant diets are used for animal production and thus contribute to the SAN, agricultural products are optimized to, finally, improve the quality of life of rural communities in four municipalities of the coastal subregion of the department of Cordoba.

Linking agricultural extension and advisory service (EAS) with participatory learning and action on nutrition and health has the potential to improve the sustainability and impact of food and agricultural programmes on nutrition and household food security. Due to their established structure/network and their greater reach to the community of whom they often already have the trust, agricultural extension and advisory workers (EAW) are probably the best resource to help achieve nutrition security through nutrition education to farmers. In order to do so, the extension workers must receive nutrition and nutrition education training. This desk review aims at mapping how nutrition is currently being mainstreamed into agricultural EAS preOservice and inOservice training and to give recommendation on the way forward.