Program/accelerator:

Better Diets and Nutrition

We will address the global challenge of nearly 3 billion people lacking access to healthy diets through advancing transformative, evidence-based solutions to ensure sustainable, equitable, and nutritious food systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Through a holistic collaboration, we will drive demand-led transitions, enabling our partners to develop food systems that deliver sustainable healthy diets and improved nutrition outcomes while safeguarding income, employment, social equity, and environmental sustainability.

Our work aims to help

  • Sustainable healthy diet demand & consumption in 5 countries
  • Collaboration of food system actors across 10 countries
  • Healthy diet access for nearly 3 billion people globally

Where we will work in

Bangladesh, Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam

Challenges we’ll address

  • Desirability: Willingness to choose healthy foods
  • Agency: Empowerment towards healthy food choices and shaping food policies
  • Affordability: Budget-friendly healthy diets
  • Accessibility: Diverse and easy-to-access healthy foods
  • Availability: Year-round supply of affordable nutritious foods

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Areas of Work

  • Consumer-facing and food environment solutions for food systems transformation towards sustainable healthy diets
    We will explore transformative, scalable solutions in consumer behavior, food environments, and governance to promote sustainable healthy diets while supporting income, food safety, environmental sustainability, gender equality, and climate resilience.
  • Market systems for better diets
    We will harness market systems to enhance the availability, affordability, and desirability of diverse, safe, and nutrient-rich foods while boosting incomes and employment opportunities, including women and youth.
  • End-to-end solutions for increasing intake of perishable nutrient-rich foods
    We will focus on co-designing, implementing, and scaling approaches to boost the consumption of perishable nutrient-rich foods and understand the impact of each approach, what mechanisms drive their success, and how cost-effective they are.
  • Strengthening the impact of biofortified and health-enhancing staples
    We will aim to enhance both demand and supply of biofortified and health-enhancing staple foods, ensuring access to essential micronutrients and improved nutrition security for rural and urban communities.
  • Leveraging the combined power of multiple systems to achieve diet and nutrition impact at scale for vulnerable populations
    We will harness the potential of multisectoral systems—such as schools, health, and nutrition-sensitive social protection programs—to combat all forms of malnutrition, align with food systems transformation efforts, and advance equity goals.
  • Catalyzing transformative momentum for better diets and nutrition toward impacts and multiple geographic scales
    We will drive transformative change by enhancing the integration of diet- and nutrition-focused design across CGIAR research and sharing insights beyond target countries through regional and global networks.

Gender Equality & Social Inclusion

We will address evidence gaps by investigating equity issues in food systems, focusing on barriers faced by women, youth, and marginalized groups. We will explore how inequities affect access to sustainable healthy diets and decent work. Additionally, we will inform solutions to improve nutrition and boost incomes, empowering women and youth through better food choices, market innovations, and value chain opportunities, while enhancing the availability of nutritious, affordable, and sustainable foods.

Our Approach

Interlinked support across CGIAR’s portfolio

We will work closely with the Breeding for Tomorrow, Policy Innovations, Scaling for Impact, Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods, and Sustainable Farming programs, and the Capacity Sharing, Digital Transformation, and Gender Equality & Social Inclusion accelerators.

Working to share our capacity with

  • National partners
  • Non-partner countries, regions, and global platforms
  • Scientists

Built on CGIAR’s proven expertise

  • Proven track record of testing, co-designing, and evaluating consumer-oriented, market-oriented, and end-to-end food systems solutions
  • An extensive network of genebanks and commitment to breeding biofortified staples
  • Established partnerships with national governments, universities, research institutions, and organizations such as NGOs, UN agencies, and civil society groups
  • A history of technical capacity-sharing and leadership development, expanding our focus to include organizational and institutional strengthening
  • Qualified expertise in translating evidence into actionable recommendations, combined with our reputation as a thought leader

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