AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT 2016

BOX 10.4:
Growing trend towards a multi-sectoral approach
towards improving nutrition
The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement is a good
example of an inclusive, multi-stakeholder, multisectoral
movement open to all countries committed to
achieving nutrition justice and an end to malnutrition in
all its forms.
A recent example is Guinea Bissau which in 2011
revised its national nutrition policy which placed
emphasis on food security and direct nutrition
interventions to adopt a multi-sectoral holistic approach
to addressing malnutrition. In 2014 the new policy was
adopted in conjunction with various ministries (up to
13 sectors) and technical and financial partners with
support from UNICEF. The main objective was to create
synergies between direct interventions and those
who contribute to nutrition so as to reduce chronic
malnutrition by 40 percent and acute malnutrition to
less than 5 percent among children under-5 by 2025.
The country is now in the process of drawing up the
multi-sectoral nutrition strategic plan which will specify
the priority interventions to be carried out and the
conditions of their implementation. The results and
impact of this approach will reveal whether this is a
good approach to addressing malnutrition.
Ethiopia has taken a step in the same direction by
transitioning the successful Productive Safety Net
Programme from an independent program to one that
is integrated with nutrition, social protection, disaster
risk management, and climate resilient green economy
policies (Ethiopia, Ministry of Agriculture, 2014). The
Government of Ethiopia and other stakeholders have
thus redesigned the program to mainstream nutrition
across its components and feature nutrition-sensitive
programming.
Burkina Faso established a National Council for
Dialogue on Nutrition in 2008; it is the designated multisectoral
platform. The Council reports to the Ministry
of Health and includes the ministries responsible for
agriculture and food security, water and sanitation,
social action and national solidarity and the economy
and finances, education, trade, empowerment of
women, scientific research and secondary and higher
education. This also includes civil society and academic
institutions, while the private sector is also represented.
The multi-sectoral common results framework was
finalized in 2015 (SUN Movement, 2015).
Recommendations for Improved Food and
Nutrition Security
A set of recommendations is offered that ties in well with
several ongoing global and continental partnerships, such
as the AU-Lula-FAO initiative, and the Scaling Up Nutrition
(SUN) Movement (see Box 10.4).
1. Incorporate explicit nutrition objectives and indicators
into the design of agriculture program, and track and
mitigate potential harms, while seeking synergies with
economic, social and environmental objectives.
2. Facilitate production diversification, and increase
production of nutrient-dense crops and small-scale
livestock (e.g., horticultural products, legumes,
livestock and fish at a small scale, underutilized crops,
and biofortified crops). Diversified production systems
are important for vulnerable producers to enable
resilience to climate and price shocks, more diverse
food consumption, reduction of seasonal food and
income fluctuations, and greater and more genderequitable
income.
3. To achieve a holistic approach, improve processing,
storage and preservation to retain nutritional value,
shelf-life, and food safety, to reduce seasonality of
food insecurity and post-harvest losses, and to make
healthy foods convenient to prepare.
4. Promote nutrition education around food and
sustainable food systems that builds on existing
local knowledge, attitudes and practices. Nutrition
knowledge can enhance the impact of production and
income in rural households, especially important for
women and young children, and can increase demand
for nutritious foods in the general population.
244 AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT 2016