Search

Begin New Search Topic Nutrition Political Geography Global Focus

1. Ending Hunger and Advancing Nutrition: Lived Experience Perspectives

Author:
Gloria Dabek, Samanta Dunford, Priya Fielding-Singh, and Peggy Tsai Yih
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
Today, soaring costs of living and spiraling inflation have made accessing and affording healthy food a challenge for many Americans. In June 2022, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs partnered with World Central Kitchen and Auburn University’s Hunger Solutions Institute to conduct listening sessions in three locations across the country to inform policy recommendations for the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The sessions focused on learning directly from individuals with lived experiences of hunger and food insecurity to explicitly center and prioritize their voices and perspectives in policy conversations. This brief presents key learnings from the listening sessions and connects them with seven actionable policy recommendations. These recommendations include: Addressing root causes of hunger; Better coordinating federal resources; Reducing barriers to federal assistance; Adding federal benefits to address current challenges; Increasing affordability and availability of fresh fruits and vegetables; Improving food recovery; Supporting communities with targeted food assistance. Underlying all of these recommendations is the understanding that hunger, nutrition, and health issues are deeply intertwined with several key environmental and social determinants—including but not limited to poverty, structural racism, housing, healthcare, economic security, education, and transportation—that help drive significant disparities in individuals’, families’, and communities’ experiences of food insecurity, nutrition, and diet-related diseases.
Topic:
Food Security, Hunger, Nutrition, and Cost of Living
Political Geography:
North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

2. Centering Global Food Security for Global Prosperity

Author:
Catherine Bertini and Ertharin Cousin
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
The new Biden Administration will face global crises on multiple fronts. COVID-19, coupled with conflict and escalating climate disasters, is leading to one of the most disastrous humanitarian and hunger crises in the last century. In the past decade, previous Administrations have demonstrated the value and impact of food security and nutrition security programs for alleviating hunger and malnutrition and for reducing the threat of conflict and governmental instability. As a result of targeted and thoughtful assistance, there are 23.4 million more people today who live above the poverty line and 3.4 million more children are free from stunting. More than 5 million families now live free from hunger and billions of dollars in agricultural sales have been generated. The Biden Administration has the opportunity to build on a strong foundation of work. To strengthen this programming in the next decade, key considerations should include: Creating a more resilient and healthful food system that is capable of absorbing shocks and stressors. Systems thinking—especially the integration of food, nutrition, health, climate, and agriculture—can drive sustainable outcomes. Building inclusive partnerships from the beginning to create sustainable and resilient communities. Investing in agricultural economies beyond US borders should be understood as an investment in critical infrastructure that stretches back to our own heartland.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Food, Hunger, and Nutrition
Political Geography:
North America and Global Focus

3. Nutrition Policy Primer: The Untapped Path to Global Health, Economic Growth, and Human Security

Author:
Amy R. Beaudreault
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
This policy primer on global nutrition outlines its role as a foundation for lifelong health, economic growth, and political stability and underscores the critical contribution of U.S. funding. The primer serves as a global nutrition 101 for policymakers with key terms, interventions, and target cohorts and a landscape overview of the priority issues in global nutrition, important players, and the U.S. government’s investments. The primer also identifies critical gaps including a $70 billion global funding gap toward the World Health Assembly’s stunting, anemia, exclusive breastfeeding, and wasting goals; data gaps in how best to reach adolescent girls during a critical growth period; and the lack of transparency of U.S. government nutrition investments and impact. The primer sets forth a proposal to increase the annual U.S. investment with specific ideas for how those additional resources can have impact programmatically and operationally, as well as in filling knowledge gaps.
Topic:
Food, Food Security, Humanitarian Crisis, and Nutrition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. The Influence of Market Support Interventions on Household Food Security: An evidence synthesis

Author:
Helene Juillard, Rebecca Lewin, Lili Mohiddin, Marion Pechayre, and Gabrielle Smith
Publication Date:
03-2017
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
There is growing consensus on the need to consider and support markets as part of humanitarian responses. It is assumed that this support will increase the impact of responses – yet to date such assumptions are rarely supported by data and strong evidence. This evidence synthesis, commissioned by the Humanitarian Evidence Programme and carried out by a team of independent and multidisciplinary consultants, represents the first ever attempt to identify, synthesize and evaluate the existing evidence on the influence of market support interventions on household food security in humanitarian crises. It is accompanied by a stand-alone executive summary and evidence brief.
Topic:
Markets, Food, Humanitarian Crisis, and Nutrition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Nutrition Knowledge Versus Schooling in the Demand for Child Micronutrient Status

Author:
Steven Block
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
This study extends the literature on the demand for child height to consider the demand for child micronutrient status. Micronutrient malnutrition is a pervasive and debilitating problem in many developing countries. A central focus concerns the distinct roles of maternal schooling versus maternal nutrition knowledge as determinants of micronutrient status. Applying both parametric and non-parametric techniques to Indonesian household data, the study finds that critical determinants include: child gender and age, the number of children in the household, household expenditure levels, access to water, and maternal nutrition knowledge. Maternal schooling contributes to child micronutrient status primarily through its effect on nutrition knowledge (for which schooling is not the primary source), and possibly through its effect on household expenditures.
Topic:
Education, Health, Human Resources, and Nutrition
Political Geography:
Global Focus