Webinar Description:

USAID and Feed the Future’s newest Innovation Lab, the Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL), is a consortium of partners led by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. In target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the Lab’s goal is to identify, study, and promote the uptake of novel technologies, practices or information flows that help in i) reducing food loss and waste, ii) improve food safety, and iii) enhance access to nutrient-dense (often perishable) foods.

FSN-IL’s consortium of U.S. academic partners, global development institutions, and food value chain and business collaborators will work across three core integrated activities—research for development (R4D), human and institutional capacity development (HICD), and stakeholder engagement. The goal is to support the uptake of food system innovations for improved diet quality and nutrition in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. FSN-IL’s key research areas include food safety and storage innovations, diet quality of women and girls, drivers of consumption choice by low-income consumers, understanding risks associated with climate change, and the need for resilience. FSN-IL aims to start its work in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Mozambique, with the goal of expanding work in the next five years to other USAID priority countries.

In this webinar, we introduced the objectives of FSNIL in the context of global food system priorities. We discussed FSN-IL’s research and capacity building agenda and highlighted how FSN-IL plans to support the broader objectives of USAID and Feed the Future.

Moderator:

• Meghan Anson, Senior Nutrition Advisor, Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Speakers:

• Shawn K. Baker, Chief Nutritionist, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
• Patrick Webb, Director, Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab
• Shibani Ghosh, Associate Director, Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab