Progress in reducing food insecurity, hunger and undernutrition was a vital part of the Millennium Development Goals, yet in some cases has slowed down or been reversed in the wake of food price spikes and the global economic downturn.
Led by Dolf te Lintelo, this DFID supported four-year programme developed:
- Evidence-based policy options that enhanced linkages between agriculture and nutrition, in particular, to support agricultural value chains that work for poor people and are sensitive to their nutrition requirements.
- Real-time monitoring methods using SMS technology for rapid and reliable assessment of hunger and nutrition statuses, enabling timely policy interventions.
- Innovative metrics to monitor governments’ political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition. This work developed a Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index, which is further supported by Irish Aid.
The programme enabled policymakers to support greater private sector investment, respond more quickly to hunger crises and facilitate civil society to more effectively monitor national and international commitments on undernutrition and hunger reduction and keep governments to account for delivering on these.
