Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab

Introduction to Circular Economy
2023-05-17 07:00 - 08:15 UTC | Webinar
Access to slides and the webinar recording are posted below!

Webinar Description:
The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) is a consortium led by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, funded under USAID through the Feed the Future Initiative. In target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the Lab’s goal is to identify and promote 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.
This webinar will cover the basics of Circular Economy, the difference between a circular and linear economy, and the importance of shifting towards a circular model built on the three pillars eliminating waste, regenerating nature, and circulating products and material. The 2nd part of the webinar will focus on circular food systems and the critical dimensions to tackle. The webinar will also present a case study on circularity within the food system.

Speakers:

Patrick Webb, Director, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University

Dr. Patrick Webb is the Alexander McFarlane Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Until 2005, Dr. Webb was the Chief of Nutrition at the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome. Today, he is the Director of the Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab. He has served on numerous task forces and global advisory panels, including currently serving on the High-Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security, he is technical adviser to the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, and serves as one of the Commissioners for the ongoing Eat-Lancet 2.0 study.

Seta Tutundjian, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Thriving Solutions

Seta Tutundjian is a global advocate for sustainability and transitioning to circular and regenerative economies in water-scarce regions. For the past 25+ years, she led the formulation and execution of transformative ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) programs that engaged and mobilized stakeholders to introduce novel approaches that increased resilience and built a demand management culture in the water, agricultural and energy sectors. Seta co-leads the global Food is Never Waste coalition; and is on the General Board of United Cities. A holder of a MSc. in Climate Change and Development, Seta is the Founder and CEO of Thriving Solutions, a sustainability consulting firm, dedicated to decarbonizing our economy, safeguarding biodiversity, regenerating nature, advancing food-nutrition-water security, and supporting the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. In recognition of her work, Seta has received several awards including the prestigious Superior Honor Award by the Government of the United States of America.

Omar Habboush, Co-founder and Finance and Business Strategy Officer, Hivemind

Omar Habboush has 10 years financial services experience in London & Dubai. Starting in FX Sales & Rates Trading then in Private Equity, he now assists start-ups from concept to commercialization. He was head of ESG at Astarte Capital Partners. Omar speaks 4 languages and has a Masters in Finance from London Business School and CFA Charterholder. At Hivemind, Omar focuses on Finance, Strategy & Operations.

Watch Recording Here!

View Slides Here

Introduction to the FSN-IL in Bangladesh
2023-01-29 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Webinar
Webinar Description:
Bangladesh has identified priority areas to improve inputs use efficiency and productivity, adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and agri-food system modernization. To boost on-farm activity, Bangladesh focuses on access to extension services and aggregation models such as farmer groups, cooperatives, to bring economies of scale to operations. Bangladesh focuses on forward and backward linkages across the food systems value chain to improve access to local produce to wider markets through private investments in inputs, processing, storage, packaging, transportation and marketing of agri-food products and digital services, with special attention in hard-to-reach areas. In Bangladesh, substantial food and nutrient quality are lost along the agri-food system value chain arising from harvest and postharvest losses due to inadequate infrastructure and technologies. Developing and adopting best food safety practices (by private sector), enforcement of regulations and policies, and improving capacity of monitoring and oversight systems for food safety are key priorities to enhance off-farm value addition and commercialization of food commodities in Bangladesh.
The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) is a five-year activity supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) as part of Feed the Future. FSN-IL is designed to generate new evidence & disseminate promising innovations that support uptake and upscaling promising nutrition-sensitive food system solutions targeted on improving access and availability of nutrient-dense foods, ensuring food safety, and preventing food loss and waste. This introductory webinar provides an opportunity for the FSN-IL to introduce the USAID-supported FSN-IL project in Bangladesh and discuss the research for development and human and institutional needs for Bangladesh’s food systems transformation agenda.

Speakers:

Patrick Webb, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University
Robin Shrestha, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University

Watch the Recording Here!

Download Webinar Slides

National Stakeholder Consultation on Food Systems Innovations and Challenges in Nepal
2023-01-24 - 2023-01-25 | Kathmandu, Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal
Consultation Description:
This two-day in country Stakeholder Consultation brought together stakeholders from the government, development partners, researchers, academics, private sectors, nutrition and food security platforms, and civil society groups to prioritize knowledge gaps and deepen understanding of the facilitators and constraints facing businesses, policymakers, and entrepreneurs across Nepal’s food system. The consultation aimed to provide a forum for identifying and discussing:

Opportunities to increase access to nutrient rich foods via innovations along the supply chain from farm to fork
Innovations that have potential to be quickly scaled that would support improved diets and nutrition.

The event also included a preliminary review of outputs from the scoping exercise conducted by the FSN-IL that may be relevant to Nepal’s transformation agenda. The novel technologies, processes and/or practices identified must be assessed and discussed in terms of their potential for impact, business models, appropriateness to the local context in Nepal along with understanding the potential delivery mechanisms, likely investment opportunities among other considerations.

Title of Presentation
Speaker
PDF

MNSP and Food System
Dr. Kiran Rupakhetee, National Planning CommissionView slides here

What Can Food Systems Transformation Deliver?

Dr. Patrick Webb, Tufts UniversityView slides here

Identifying Innovations to Reduce Food Loss and Waste, Enhance Food Safety, and Promote Access to Nutrient-Dense Foods
Dr. Shibani Ghosh, Tufts University

Robin Shrestha, Tufts UniversityView slides here

Understanding the Food Issues in Nepal - National Pathways on Food Systems TransformationMahesh Kharel, National Planning CommissionView slides here

Identifying Innovations to Reduce Food Loss and Waste, Enhance Food Safety and Promote Access to Nutrient Dense Foods Across the Food System
2022-11-30 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Webinar
Webinar Description:
The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) is a consortium led by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, funded under USAID through the Feed the Future Initiative. In target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the Lab’s goal is to identify and promote 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 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.
In this webinar, we will share findings of a series of scoping exercises conducted by FSN-IL and its consortium of partners in Year 1. We will discuss the process and highlight key points that are emerging. Moving forward, we will discuss how FSN-IL plans to use these prioritization finds to further build on its activities. Attendees will be invited to submit questions during the webinar, which will be answered live during our Q&A segment.

Moderator:

Patrick Webb, Director, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University

Speaker:

Shibani Ghosh, Associate Director, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University

Watch the Recording Here!

View Presentation Slides Here

Evidence Needs To Support Nutrition-Sensitive Innovations In Food Value Chains: Perspectives From South Asia And Southern Africa
2022-10-14 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Rome)
Webinar Description:
The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) at Tufts University supports the uptake of food system innovations for improved diet quality and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This FSN-IL led side-event will bring together panelists to discuss evidence needs to support innovation in food value chains for healthy diets and a healthy planet focusing on South Asia and Southern Africa. Healthy diets produced sustainably require LMICs to produce more nutrient-rich foods, process and preserve them all the way to the consumer, and cut loss and waste. This requires an urgent focus on innovation, technologies, and applied science to scale up actions and investments across agri-food systems.

Moderators:

Patrick Webb, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University, Boston, USA
Shibani Ghosh, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University, Boston, USA

Speakers:
South Asia (Bangladesh & Nepal):

Kiran Rupakhetee, National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal
Monzur Morshed Ahmed, Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), Ministry of Food, Bangladesh
Ashek Mahfuz, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Bangladesh
Aminuzzaman Talukder, Helen Keller International, Bangladesh
Atul Upadhyay, Baliyo Nepal Nutrition Initiative, Nepal
Ram Shrestha, CAFODAT College, Nepal

Southern Africa (Malawi & Mozambique):

Sophie Lusungu Chitedze, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Malawi
Gaspar Cuambe, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Mozambique
David L. Tschirley, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University
Edna Possolo, World Food Program, Mozambique

Watch the Recording Here!

True Cost Accounting Of Food
2022-04-25 10:00 - 13:00 UTC
Webinar Description:
There is a clarion call for a dramatic transformation of the world’s food systems. Conservative estimates show healthy diets are unaffordable for more than 3 billion people, especially the poor in every region in the world. COVID-19 has also highlighted the fragility of global and local food systems, especially in light of the evolving climate crisis. In this webinar, panelists will discuss leveraging the True Cost Accounting (TCA) framework to address market failures, as well as the policy and programmatic implications of TCA across the food system.
This 3-hour event featured two panels of experts and is presented as a follow-up to the recommendations from the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).

Speakers:

Eileen Kennedy, Tufts University
Maximo Torero, FAO
Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean, Tufts University Friedman School Nutrition Science and Policy
Will Masters, Tufts University
Roy Steiner, Rockefeller Foundation
Sheryl L. Hendriks, University of Pretoria
Jamie Morrison, FAO
Kathleen Merrigan, ASU
Shibani Ghosh, Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, Tufts University
Daniel Mason-D’Croz, Cornell University

Promoting Nutrition-Sensitive Innovation Across The Food System: Introduction To The Work Of The New Food Systems For Nutrition Innovation Lab
2022-04-21 08:30 - 21:45 UTC
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

Watch the Recording Here!
