AVENIR Project Photo Credit: C. Chege/Alliance Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture Nutrition Mainstreaming Prepared by International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya. Citation: Chege, C.G.K., Kanté, Nouwodjro., Kane, B., & Mwongera, C. (2022). Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR): Nutrition Mainstreaming. Nairobi, Kenya, 6 P Created for AVENIR projected implementers and partners, this highly summarized AVENIR project document is designed to highlight key information and expectations regarding nutrition mainstreaming in the project. The document shows pathways for improving nutrition in AVENIR and how the different nutrition sensitive activities would lead to improved diets. The document should be used by the project team in conjunction with nutrition mainstreaming trainings. Implementing partners Funder MEDA is the lead institution and the Alliance is the key implementing partner. Background: Food and nutrition insecurity remain critical agricultural practices, particularly for women and challenges in Senegal, aggravated by poor dietary young people. The project aims to improve access diversity, yearly hunger seasons, and food safety to inputs, climate-smart technologies, and efficient challenges, especially concerning water, sanitation, and affordable irrigation techniques, and to foster and hygiene. Although the situation varies by region, multi-stakeholder platforms for the sustainable and the project’s baseline study showed that 93% of the equitable management of water resources. The households assessed have poor food consumption as project further seeks to improve the availability, measured using Food Consumption Scores, indicating accessibility, affordability, acceptability, quality, and that these households receive inadequate nutrients sufficiency of diverse nutritious and safe foods, to and have low dietary diversity1. improve diets and contribute to better nutrition. It aims to promote sustainable food consumption The overall goal of the Adaptation and Valorization patterns in a gender-equitable manner while of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR) considering environmental, socio-cultural, and project is to improve the socio-economic well-being economic sustainability. The project aims to directly and resilience of farming households in the regions benefit 10,000 farming households whose members of Sedhiou and Tambacounda, Senegal. The project consist of 70% women and 30% young people, and focuses on smallholder-irrigated systems through indirectly benefit up to 35,000 individuals. The project the promotion of climate-adapted irrigation and Project Impact plan aims for 6,750 people—70% women and 30% youth— sensitive agricultural approaches will be used to to benefit from its nutrition interventions. Women deliver nutrition outcomes. of reproductive age, grandmothers, and youth will The project implementers are required to apply the be targeted. The project further aims to conduct a ‘Do No Harm’ principle in their day-to-day activities minimum of 32 community engagement and learning and interventions, to ensure no harm is caused by sessions on nutrition by end of the project. the implemented activities. The project implementers Nutrition is mainstreamed in the AVENIR project should ensure that the project does not cause activities based on the ‘Do No Harm’ principle2, unintended negative consequences on diets and to ensure the dietary quality of women, youth, and nutrition. children in the project sites is improved. Nutrition- 1 World Food Program (WFP). 2020. Senegal. New York: WFP. Available at: http://www1.wfp.org/countries/senegal 2 Muriithi, C., Mwongera, C., Abera, W., Nyakundi, F., Chege, C., & Nguru W. (2021). Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR) Baseline Study. Nairobi, Kenya, 113 P 2 DO-No-Harm principle3 The understanding of the impact of an intervention, with the goal to limit or prevent unintended negative effects on the beneficiaries, community, environment, local economy, or livelihoods. The principle encourages the identification of potential harms, development of a mitigation plan, and setting in place a well- functioning monitoring system. Examples of application of ‘Do No Harm’ principle in AVENIR project: Ensuring that the project does not have any unintended negative consequences on diets and nutrition Ensuring the AVENIR project does not cause harm through crop choice, the inappropriate use of agrochemicals, increased agricultural water use affecting the environment, or water and food contamination that leads to sickness Ensuring that the AVENIR agricultural activities do not negatively influence female energy or time expenditure Ensuring special consideration is given to groups with specific needs, especially vulnerable women and children Engaging in a two-way dialogue with communities Ensuring AVENIR project activities do not create divisions among community members 3 Mary Anderson’s Do No Harm approach centred on interaction between assistance and conflict, and evolved into the current “Conflict sensitivity” approach developed by the Collaborative Development Action (CDA) platform. Photo Credit: Sandro Bozzolo/Alliance 3 Photo Credit: C. Chege/Alliance Agriculture to Nutrition Nutrition awareness and women’s empowerment Pathways are vital for this pathway to lead to positive nutrition outcomes. Nutrition outputs and outcomes within the AVENIR c) Market (Food environment) pathway: project will be achieved through the co-identification of culturally appropriate, nutrition-led agricultural Farmers produce an excess of nutrient-dense practices for women and youth. By engaging with commodities that are made available in the women, youth leaders, and community health markets for non-producing consumers workers i.e., animators, the project will create Large amounts of these nutrient-dense awareness and build capacity among farming commodities in the markets can lead to households on the production, processing, and lower prices and increase the availability and consumption of diverse and nutrient-dense foods at affordability for consumers the household and community level, using the Social Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) approach. Nutrition awareness and women’s empowerment Multiple agriculture-to-nutrition pathways will be are vital for this pathway to lead to positive nutrition used to improve the diet quality and nutrition of the outcomes. target beneficiaries (Figure 1). d) Women’s empowerment pathway: a) Production pathway: Refers to agriculture as a way to empower women Agricultural farm produce acts as a source of through the following aspects: diverse and nutritious food • Improved access to productive resources Farmers produce nutrient-dense commodities and • Reduced time and energy expenditure on consume them in their own households agriculture activities, to improve well-being and Production of nutrient-dense commodities by childcare farmers creates an improved food environment for • Improved access to nutrition education and farming households and the communities other gender-sensitive activities Increased production and diversification can improve access to healthy diets by reducing the price of diverse foods on the market Nutrition awareness and women’s empowerment are vital for this pathway to lead to positive nutrition outcomes. b) Income pathway: Refers to agriculture as a source of income for farming households Households produce commodities and sell them to earn income Additional income can result in improved household diet and health, through food expenditure such as the purchase of nutritious foods, as well as non-food expenditures, such as healthcare services and sanitation facilities Photo Credit: C. Chege/Alliance 4 The Nutrition-Sensitive Value Chain (NSVC): An approach for mainstreaming nutrition in agricultural value chains Following the agriculture-to-nutrition pathways, the systems, climate-adapted solutions, irrigation, AVENIR project will apply the Nutrition-Sensitive climate-smart agriculture trainings, sustainable Value Chain (NSVC) approach to implement nutrition- water management, and processing and sensitive interventions in the project’s targeted strengthening linkages between value chain agricultural value chains. A NSVC is a food value chain actors. that has been shaped to alleviate constraints in food Demand strategies: These are strategies supply and demand, with the main goal of improving aimed at increasing demand and consumption the diets of target consumers4. of nutritious commodities and products Value chains influence both the supply and demand by consumers, thereby focusing on the of food. From the supply side, interventions meant downstream stages of the chain. Some of the to contribute to nutrition or better diet quality must demand-side interventions that the AVENIR consider the way foods are produced, processed, project will focus on include nutrition awareness distributed, and marketed throughout the chain. raising and behavior change communications, On the demand side, there is a need to understand social campaigns through women groups, and the factors that influence consumer demand and the promotion of hygienic and nutritious food consumption, and how this happens. The value chain preparation, which will include cooking classes approach, therefore, helps to consider the whole and recipe development. chain and design interventions at different stages Pro-nutrition value strategies: These are along the chain (Figure 1). strategies aimed at addressing the nutritional The NSVC approach focuses on three key strategies quality of commodities or products. Constraints to improve nutrition/diets: relate to the actual nutritional value of individual products or value that arises from Supply strategies: These are strategies aimed issues of food safety, or food loss and waste. at increasing the supply of commodities The AVENIR project will focus on trainings to and products, and they relate to value chain reduce food loss and waste, approaches to upgrading strategies, such as product and reduce food contamination during handling and process-upgrading strategies. Some of the preparation and to preserve nutritional value, supply-side interventions that the AVENIR processing, and good agricultural practices, e.g., project will implement include product quality, avoiding excessive use of pesticides. efficiency and consistency of production Photo Credit: C. Chege/Alliance 4 Adopted from the following sources: (1) De la Peña, I. & Garrett, J. 2018. Nutrition-sensitive Value Chains: A guide for project design – Volume II. Rome: IFAD, and (2) Gelli, A., Hawkes, C., Donovan, J. et al. 2015. Value Chains and Nutrition: A Framework to Support the Identification, Design, and Evaluation of Interventions. IFPRI Discussion Paper 01413. Washington DC: IFPRI 5 Photo Credit: C. Chege/Alliance Figure 1: Strategies for improving nutrition in the AVENIR project and impact pathways for positive nutrition outcomes AVENIR Agriculture-to- interventions nutrition Nutrition knowledge pathways i.e., SBCC activities; cooking Food safety Food prices demonstrations; recipe books; value i.e., food safety awareness addition and trainings Production activities; climate-adapted solutions; irrigation; climate-smart Food agriculture trainings Production Access to climate-smart agricultural and irrigation inputs and technologies Agricultural income Food Food expenditure consumption Nutrient intake Sustainable water-resource management Nutrition Market linkage activities outcomeMarket Women and youth i.e., the food Non-food empowerment, e.g., through environment expenditure Healthcare Health status operating inclusive and expenditure profitable agribusinesses Nutrition education Sustainable water-management practices; improved agricultural production practices e.g., minimizing Women’s standing water in irrigation zones, minimizing the use of empowerment agrochemicals Source: Developed for AVENIR project CONTACTS Caroline Mwongera Christine Chege Project Leader Agri-Nutrition Scientist c.mwongera@cgiar.org c.chege@cgiar.org Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) are part of CGIAR, a global https://alliancebioversityciat.org/ research partnership for a food-secure future. www.cgiar.org Bioversity International is the operating name of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).