Making Investments Work for Nutrition
The following contribution is based on my understanding that the food security (adequate calorie), nutrition (nutritionally balance diet) and safe food (from health and mental/cultural prospective) are different issues of food policy. This discussion is focused on the second one.
Q 1. If you were to advise a director of planning for agriculture, what would you suggest as the most important things to consider in order to make investments work for nutrition?
A. From my understanding and experience the most important thing to consider in order to make the investment work for nutrition is adequate understanding of ROOT CAUSES or SOURCES of nutritional problem. The problems can result from different sources:
- • Insufficient means (income to afford or land to produce) nutritional food.
- • Lack of access to nutritional food despite some means to buy.
- • Inadequate knowledge on nutritional requirements for particular health condition.
- • Inadequate knowledge on nutritional availability in locally and regularly available food.
- • Cultural problem in diet (cultural barrier to change diet or access the nutritional diet).
- • Personal behavior (taste preference, unable to manage or laziness).
Many Nepali farmers can produce sufficient vegetable in their land but insufficient consumption of vegetable is still a common nutritional problem. Generally people eat vegetable related products to make tasty/appealing of main staple food. They hardly know the quantity of vegetable they need in their diet to make their diet adequately nutritional. In such situation investment in awareness creation and extension/education should be done first and then investment to enhance nutritional production.
B. It requires development of institutionalized systems to make investment work for nutrition. If the work focuses to showing results quickly and caring little for ground reality and longer term problems similar to the work of international donor funded projects its effect might be temporarily. Printing the nutritional promotion slogans in vests or other clothes can give flash solution and may work temporarily similar to the development of international donor advised and funded projects. It is not a reliable and long lasting solution.
C. Local agroclimatic conditions, institutions and farming systems are other factors important to be considered to make the investment work for nutrition.
Q . 2. What gaps do you see in research to deliver effective results for nutrition?
Rural socioeconomic situations, institutions, farming systems, agro-ecological conditions and other causes of nutritional problems, the important determinants for nutritional food production, are changing over time. The changes of them vary with place or communities. In most of the nutritional problems countries or regions the problems and opportunities associated with the factors are interpreted and explained either based on values or opinions of powerful people (mostly expatriates or consultants of international donor agencies) or based on poor quality information. There are no quality studies or information to understand the problems and opportunities associated with the determinants, and deliver effective results for nutrition.
Q.3. How can institutions work together at country level to deliver effective results for nutrition?
Institutions are varying in resource holding for research investment, capacity of working, position of providing ground level information and ability to influence in policy or public decisions. If the institutions work forming partnership considering their strength to make effect in all important areas they deliver effective results for nutrition. However, international institutions do not work usually in this manner. I would like to share current case of Asian Development Bank (ADB). The bank assured Nepal government to support development of national agricultural plan. Then it developed a plan for the country using its consultants without discussing with stakeholders and government officials. It is very surprising how the foreign consultant know the current agricultural related problems and prospect in Nepal where socio-institutions are undergoing rapid changes. Stakeholders and government officials have put strongly objection on this practice the ADB has been behaving imperiously and responding hardly to them. How the national agricultural plan developed in universal planning template of ADB can work to deliver effective results for nutrition in Nepal which has a great variation of socioeconomic and agro-ecological condition across the country. I would like to cite an old case of the bank which advised Nepal government to reduce livestock of poor farmers while developing forestry sector master plan 1988. The government followed the plan and poor farmers and particularly remote communities have been main victim of the bad advice. The ADB consultants who had little knowledge of reality of Nepali farming conditions, had greatly guided the plan development.
The international institutions similar to ADB (e.g. the World Bank and IMF) commonly behaves domineeringly to institutionally weak countries despite the management of the agencies know their behaviors are professionally illegal. The government officials of developing countries cannot strongly object the illegal actions of the materially and symbolically powerful agencies to maintain working relationship. Inviting management representatives of those agencies to participate in this and discussing their bad official manners/ practices would make some contribution to delivering effective results for nutrition. I request current moderator to invite them and continue discussion on their counterproductive institutional practices.
Thanks for reading my opinions.
Bhubanswor Dhakal
Dr. Bhubaneswor Dhakal