This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Other focal areas under the Poverty, Nutrition,


and Social Protection theme include • Pathways from Poverty (closed in 2010).


8 DIET, HEALTH, AND FOOD SAFETY


HARVESTPLUS In 2010, the HarvestPlus Challenge Program, cohosted with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), concluded an evaluation of the economic and health effects of biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) in Mozambique and Uganda; this marks the first such release and evaluation of a biofortified crop supported by HarvestPlus and the first use of a randomized field experiment to assess the impact of biofortification on a range of agricultural and nutri- tional outcomes. The exciting results include the high adoption rates of OFSP by farmers, and significant increases in OFSP consumption—and thus intakes of vitamin A—among young children (6–35 months), older children (3–5 years), and adult women. This suc- cess makes scaling up future dissemination of OFSP a viable option in both countries if costs per beneficiary can be kept as low as possible. The First Global Conference on Biofortification,


organized by HarvestPlus, took place in November 2010 and attracted 300 scientists, researchers, deci- sionmakers, practitioners, and students from around the world, who discussed the development and deliv- ery of biofortified crops in the coming years.


DIET QUALITY AND HEALTH OF THE POOR IFPRI research related to diet quality and health in 2010 focused on strengthening the linkages between agriculture, health, and nutrition. In Zambia, IFPRI and Concern Worldwide launched a collaborative project— Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN)—to evaluate community-based, women-focused pro- grams that improve maternal and child health by integrating agriculture, health, and nutrition interven- tions. In addition, IFPRI and Helen Keller International (HKI) have been evaluating the effects of HKI’s home- stead food production programs, which are targeted toward women. The evaluation of one such program


in Cambodia and its impact on children’s nutrition ended in 2010, but a similar program began in Burkina Faso. The latter assesses how the success of interven- tions (for example, improved child feeding practices) can be compounded when combined with strategic communications about behavior change; it uses vil- lage health committees or groups of older, influential women in the community to disseminate nutritional information. After nearly a decade of work, the Regional


Network on AIDS, Livelihoods, and Food Security (RENEWAL) drew to a close in 2010 and publicized its work in these formats: a series of publications on HIV, food, and nutrition security in Uganda; presentations at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna; a synthesis workshop in Cape Town, South Africa; and a leading role in integrating food and nutrition consid- erations into HIV programs at the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board Meeting in Geneva.


Zambia: Interventions during the thousand-day window of opportunity (from conception to age two) are most effective at preventing consequences of undernutrition such as stunting.


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