Prioritizing Nutrition in Agriculture and Rural Development: Guiding Principles for Operational Investments

The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of guiding principles for incorporating nutrition goals into the design and implementation of agricultural and rural development projects. Several principles are likely to be important in all or most cases for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which can be adapted to individual contexts. Incorporating nutritional concerns into the design and implementation of agricultural policies, projects, and investments is a key principle. This involves including a nutrition objective as an explicit program or policy goal, measuring nutrition, and ensuring that nutrition is integrated into the project's design and implementation. Targeting nutritionally vulnerable groups, such as the poorest households, women of childbearing age, and young children, is also crucial. Investing in women is another important principle, as it can strengthen their decision-making power and control of economic resources, increase their access to time-saving and productivity-enhancing technologies, and support their income generation. Increasing year-round access to diverse, safe, and nutrient-dense foods is essential for improving nutrition. This can be achieved by increasing the production of diverse, nutrient-dense foods, improving their nutritional content, and improving basic food safety. Decreasing the impact of seasonal food shortages through measures to increase consumption of nutrient-dense foods throughout the year is also critical. Protecting health through water management is another key principle, as it can minimize potential harm from water-borne diseases and chemical contamination of water. Designing poverty reduction strategies to explicitly benefit nutrition is a critical principle. This involves enhancing the nutrition impact of income through a focus on women and nutrition knowledge, shaping agricultural growth to reduce the dual burden of undernutrition and obesity, and contributing to nutrition-sensitive poverty reduction through pro-poor investments in services and infrastructure. Creating enabling environments for good nutrition through knowledge and incentives is also essential, as it can incorporate nutrition education to translate production and income gains into nutrition improvements and improve policy coherence. The principles underscore investments in people and systems that have the potential to transform underlying conditions and positively influence the multiple, proximal determinants of proper nutrition. Further research and evaluation priorities include tracking impact on multiple outcomes at once, designing studies that can attribute impact to specific approaches, and collecting information on costs and cost-effectiveness. Although there is a need to strengthen knowledge around design and implementation strategies, there is good evidence that well-planned investments are likely to reach at least targeted income and dietary outcomes. Existing knowledge around the recommended principles is sufficient to move ahead in designing nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions.