DELIVERING FOR NUTRITION IN SOUTH ASIA: TRANSFORMING DIETS – CONCEPT NOTE

Conference Hashtag: #D4N2022

Background

Food systems are complex and dynamic, consisting of the food production value chain, food environments, and consumer behaviors. These components shape people’s dietary choices and, in turn, nutrition outcomes.

Healthy diets are necessary for achieving optimal growth and development, yet many do not have access to safe, affordable, healthy food. Indeed, suboptimal diets are a major driver for the rise in malnutrition, and one of the leading risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease. South Asia has the highest rates of poverty and malnutrition globally, and poor diets are contributing to the observed increases in overweight, obesity, higher risk of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and persisting micronutrient deficiencies in the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and exposed the existing gaps and inequities in food systems, health and nutrition services, and economies in the region. The pandemic’s effects disproportionately affected the poor and vulnerable, including women and children. Over two years after the onset, food security and nutrition have not returned to pre-pandemic levels in many countries. Moving forward, as the region gradually recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, it is important now more than ever to understand what people are eating, why, and consider promising interventions for transforming diets.

Improving equitable access to nutritious, sustainable diets in South Asia requires strong multidisciplinary research and engagement across the food production-to-consumption continuum. Given the scale and complexity of transforming diets, there is immense value in sharing and distilling evidence into insights from implementation research and experiences that can be acted upon locally, nationally, and regionally.

About the conference

IFPRI’s Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthen and Harmonize Actions for Nutrition in India (POSHAN), together with the One CGIAR South Asia regionally integrated initiative Transforming Agri-Food Systems in South Asia and a range of regional co-hosts, are pleased to announce the virtual conference, ‘Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Transforming Diets.’  The conference is scheduled to take place November 9-10, 2022.

Delivering for Nutrition 2022 will be the second regional conference on implementation research, and the fifth edition overall. This conference will bring together policymakers, program implementers, and researchers working in and focusing on South Asia to deliberate innovative ways to transform diets. Previous Delivering for Nutrition implementation research conferences were held in 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The format for this year’s conference is hybrid, consisting of a virtual two-day conference that will bring together regional stakeholders, followed by in-person policy dialogues among national stakeholders at the country-level. This format is subject to change.

Purpose

To bring together relevant evidence and stimulate dialogue to inform and guide policy and program initiatives in South Asia for improving equitable access to and consumption of healthy diets.

Objectives

• Examine evidence on current dietary patterns at the local, country-, and regional-levels, and the determinants of these patterns
• Identify strategies for shaping healthy dietary behaviors, including what has worked, has not worked, why, and in what contexts
• Identify potential program and policy levers for transforming diets

Process

We will invite abstracts on research studies and implementation experiences on the following thematic areas:

• Evidence on dietary practices of South Asian populations, focusing both on healthy dietary behaviors and consumption of unhealthy foods
• Evidence on interventions targeted to consumers to shape dietary practices
• Measuring rural and urban food environments and innovations in measuring food consumption
• Evidence on policies to support healthy dietary practices (e.g., labelling, taxation, regulations and more)

Participants

The conference will convene academics, implementers, development partners, and policymakers to share and discuss evidence on transforming diets in South Asia.

Expected outcomes

The discussions and deliberations from this conference are expected to convey research-based insights to nutrition and public health stakeholders and policymakers to bolster actions for tackling malnutrition in all its forms in South Asia. The virtual conference will provide the foundation for direct engagement on context-specific program and policy priorities that are taken forward by national stakeholders in their respective countries.