Support for diverse and nutritious climate–resilient, food and/or livestock production through gender–responsive/ transformative approaches

Partnerships to support nutrition sensitive agriculture and postharvest processing at household level to improve access to diverse and affordable foods.

Nutrition sensitive food production through home/community based gardening projects.

Nutrition sensitive livestock programmes including livestock transfer, health and feeding programmes.

Integrate climate–smart approaches, such as diversified and sustainable food systems, early warning systems and adaptive strategies, into nutrition sensitive programming to build resilience against climate–related shocks. 

Incorporate gender–responsive approaches by addressing gender inequalities in food and livestock production, empowering women in decision–making and ensuring equitable access to resources, while promoting

• Agricultural interventions can increase woman and child dietary diversity through both production for consumption and for income generation pathways, particularly when designed with a nutrition sensitive focus. Additional support for complementary feeding should be considered as an intervention to increase the percent of children meeting minimum dietary diversity.
• Nutrition–sensitive agriculture/livestock interventions are more likely to impact child wasting if they increase production of micronutrient–rich foods along with foods high in energy or protein, for example, horticultural products, legumes, livestock and fish at a small scale, underutilised crops and biofortified crops
• Interventions that focus on agricultural production, require, by nature of the production cycle, at least one calendar year (and often two or more) to achieve any measured impacts on diet diversity outcomes. This may be a constraint in contexts where the need to stabilise a deteriorating food security situation is relatively urgent.
• The provision of livestock feed during critical dry periods in livestock dependent communities can have significant positive effects on (i) sustaining milk production, (ii) the availability of milk at the household level, (iii) an increased frequency and amount of milk consumption and (iv) the prevention of acute malnutrition among children and women in pastoralist communities.
• Nutrition–sensitive agricultural and livestock interventions are more likely to improve maternal/PBWG nutrition outcomes when they include strong nutrition SBC and women’s empowerment components.
• 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.
• The natural resource base (water, soil, air, climate, biodiversity), critical to the livelihoods and resilience of vulnerable farmers and livestock owners need to be understood and supported.
• Examine and forecast repetitive climate–related shocks for early planning and appropriate first response.
• Ensure resilient food systems interventions that promote sustainable agriculture, invest in disaster–resistant infrastructure and create safety nets for vulnerable families particularly for women.