Brief Description

Progress in designing and implementing effective interventions to address malnutrition has been hampered by the complexity of food and nutrition systems, and the embedded reality of food and agriculture within broader development contexts. While it would be impractical to include all the important factors (e.g. WHO framework on stunting, Beal et al., 2019) in a single project, it is also equally ineffective to ‘cherry pick’ specific food and agriculture interventions based on incomplete understanding of specific development contexts.

This workshop will explore a promising new approach for addressing malnutrition in all its forms (undernutrition, hidden hunger and overnutrition). A key strength of this new approach is a consistent focus on integration and co-ordination of normally separate and disjointed activities. Two key innovations are elaboration of an integrating nutrition system framework and the development of thematic lenses (e.g. culture, gender, environment, governance/policy) to research, monitor and evaluate specific interventions.

The workshop is particularly timely and relevant to Indonesia as this country rolls out an ambitious national program to reduce the prevalence of childhood stunting. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research is sponsoring the workshop and is committed to exploring innovative approaches to deliver improved nutrition and health outcomes from food and agricultural research. The workshop is an opportunity for participants to shape future directions in this important emerging research topic.

Session Objectives

  1. Raise awareness among the CSA community of the need for multi-sector approaches to the challenge of childhood stunting.
  2. Share a new approach for transforming nutrition systems to address multiple forms of malnutrition.
  3. Enhance networking between University of Queensland, University of Oxford, LIPI, BAPPENAS and the broader CSA community.
  4. Provide basis of a short paper for submission as a Commentary to Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

Chairperson/Moderator

Bill Belloti, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland

Rapporteur

John Ingram, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford