The Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL), hosted by the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, in collaboration with the Government of Nepal National Planning Commission (NPC), successfully hosted a two-day national consultation workshop on Jan 24-25, 2023, in Kathmandu, Nepal. The aim was to gather in-depth insights and promote discussion across public and private sector stakeholders on food system transformation pathways.
The work in Nepal is part of a global collaborative effort supported by FSN-IL to identify opportunities that increase access to safe, affordable nutrient-rich foods via innovations along the chain from farm to fork. FSN-IL’s work is focused at the outset in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi and Mozambique. In such countries, the Lab promotes research on, and investments in, the enabling environments for innovations (technologies, products, practices, or policy bundles) that have potential to be scaled quickly that would support improved diets and nutrition, reduce food loss and waste of perishable (nutrient dense) foods, enhance food safety, and increase access to greater diversity of fruits and vegetables, dairy, eggs, legumes, fish, nuts, wholegrain foods, etc.
Around 100 stakeholders participated in this two-day consultation, including:
- Government officials, including secretaries, joint secretaries, under-secretaries, division chiefs, and provincial secretaries and government officials, representing Ministries of health, agriculture and livestock, nutrition, family welfare division, NPC, provinces, ministry of women children and senior citizens, ministry of education, NARC, MSNP, etc.
- Development partners (USAID and the European Commission)
- Researchers/academics
- A dozen private sector food companies
- Nutrition and food security networks
- Civil society groups
According to Professor Patrick Webb, director of the FSN-IL, the two-day consultation “provided a novel forum in which government and private sector stakeholders could openly discuss priority needs, actions, interlocking challenges related to policy change, and measurable investments needed to sustainably transform Nepal’s food systems. This represents an important first step in such engagement.”
For more information on the consultation and access to the presentation slides, click here.