A rights-based approach to food and nutrition security

Bill Pritchard | bill.pritchard@sydney.edu..au

1. Multi-dimensional poverty assessment

2. The agriculture-nutrition disconnect, and the nutrition-sensitive development agenda

3. The ‘rights revolution’ in food policy

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India [left], Tanzania [right] Oxford Multidimensional Poverty and Human Development Initiative (2013) Country Briefings

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The agriculture-nutrition disconnect

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• “Income growth drives declines in undernutrition: estimates suggest a 10% increase in income leads to a 5-6% decrease in stunting levels (Ruel and Alderman 2013). But income growth cannot be relied on and only addresses part of the problem.” (p. 5) [italics mine]

• ‘”which agricultural practices, policies and interventions can make a positive impact on the nutritional status of vulnerable rural households?’” (p. 9)

http://agridiet.ucc.ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/10/AgriDiet-GlobalReview-FINAL-22-10-13.pdf

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RCT = randomised controlled trials

Meeker, J. & Haddad, L. (2013) A State-of-the-Art Review of Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages, AgDiet Position Paper, Dublin, p. 9

Meeker & Haddad’s key priority questions (2013, p. 10)

› We need to find out the following from these actors: › Farm household members:

- What are the key agriculture decisions? Who makes them? - How much do nutrition considerations factor into these decisions? Why or why

not? - What are the knowledge, attitude and practices of different farm household

individuals with respect to nutrition? - What do farmers think are the key incentives and barriers to considering

nutrition? What are the important trade-offs and information gaps?

› With other stakeholders in the farm system: - How much do they know about nutrition? - What are their views about how much agriculture should do for nutrition? - What do they think could be done? What do they see as the trade-offs? - What needs to happen to make agriculture more pro-nutrition?

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Rights-based approaches to food policy

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