Low income, poor eating habits, lack of knowledge about good nutrition practices, and limited access to diverse food items are other important determinants of food insecurity and malnutrition. This is why EAS need to identify and address the nutritional needs of rural households and mainstream nutrition-sensitive messages in their service provision. This note reviews selected instruments that EAS can use for this purpose.

À l’échelle mondiale et au sein des institutions de développement et des gouvernements, il existe une prise de conscience plus affûtée du besoin de mieux comprendre les liens entre l’agriculture et la nutrition et de décrypter comment le secteur agricole pourrait contribuer à une nutrition améliorée. On en sait encore moins en termes de quoi fournir et comment fournir aux ménages ruraux des « services agricoles sensibles à la nutrition1 » de manière efficiente. Les conseillers agricoles (par des circuits publics, privés ou par le biais d’organisations non gouvernementales (ONG)) sont souvent jugés comme une plateforme ou un véhicule prometteur pour la fourniture de savoir et de pratiques pour améliorer la nutrition des communautés rurales parce qu’ils touchent les agriculteurs et interagissent avec eux dans différents contextes. Ils agissent comme des prestataires de services importants sur des aspects qui touchent la production, la consommation et la sécurité alimentaire dans les domaines de l’agriculture, l’élevage et la foresterie.

The Kaleidoscope Model

The current emphasis in the development community on demonstrating policy impact requires a better understanding of national policymaking processes to recognize opportunities for, and limits to, generating policy change. Consequently, this paper introduces an applied framework, named the kaleidoscope model, to analyze drivers of change in the food security arena, with a specific emphasis on agriculture and nutrition policies. Focusing on five key elements of the policy cycle—agenda setting, design, adoption, implementation, and evaluation and reform—the model identifies key variables that define the necessary and sufficient conditions for policy change to occur. These variables were inductively derived through an extensive review of the secondary literature on episodes of policy change in developing countries across a broad range of policy domains related to food security, including agriculture, education, healthcare, nutrition, and social protection. 

The advantages of the framework are at least fourfold. First, it incorporates issues of power and conflict much more than existing operational hypotheses in the donor community. Second, compared with many traditional public policy theories, it recognizes the importance of external actors, including donors, and the simultaneous influence of interests, ideas, and institutions. Third, it helps trace why a policy fails to be implemented by taking into account where gaps may have existed during other stages of the policy cycle. Finally, it is readily amenable to operationalization and application to a broader set of country case studies. Collectively, the model aspires to improve the relevance of public policy theories to the developing-country context; offer practical recommendations to key partners; and inform ongoing policy change processes, such as the Feed the Future initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Farmers in Nepal are getting the most out of their farms, both in nutrition as well as in economic terms, by integrating a variety of crops on the farm.

Speech delivered by Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture, Nigeria at the Brussels Policy Briefing on ‘Agricultural resilience in the face of crises and shocks’, Brussels, 04 March 2013.

The speech covers six policy areas for improving resilience, based on experiences in Nigeria: access to affordable agricultural inputs, access to financial services, building capacity to predict shocks to inform risk management, encourage drought tolerant crops, improved water management and social safety net policies.

A Synthesis of Experiences, Lessons, and Recommendations

An executive summary

A Synthesis of Experiences, Lessons, and Recommendations

The major purpose of this study was to analyze and document the past, current, and future role of EAS, with regard to human nutrition. This report summarizes the current state of knowledge on the role of nutrition in EAS resulting from an extensive literature review, analyzing survey responses, and conducting interviews with actors from worldwide development organizations, governmental agencies, educational and research institutions, and the private sector.

The Executive Summary of ths report is available as a separate publication.