The IFPRI 2020 Conference in New Delhi continues to build energy and raise awareness about the important linkages between agriculture, nutrition, and health! Here is a quick summary (PDF version) of some of the exciting activities that happened since the conference:
Conferences and workshops
Conference on “Unleashing Agriculture’s Potential for Improved Nutrition and Health in Malawi” September 26-27, Lilongwe, Malawi—Malawi Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development and IFPRI—Malawi is the first country to seize the opportunity to bring together the three sectors in a national forum. More than 150 people participated in discussions on strengthening cross-sectoral linkages, scaling up investments in integrated agriculture-nutrition-health programs, and investing in agricultural research and technology to improve nutrition and health. The Policy Action Note identifies specific recommendations.
Workshop on “Measuring Effects of Agri-Health Interventions” May 12-13, London, UK—Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) and IFPRI—More than 100 health and agriculture professionals came together to discuss how metrics and methods can improved to better evaluate health outcomes of agricultural investments. A cheat sheet organizes common definitions, tools, and programs by sector to ease the “language barrier” that commonly divides field specialists.
Events
Side event “Connecting the Dots: How Agriculture Can Contribute to Global Health” October 12, Des Moines, Iowa— Chicago Council on Global Affairs and IFPRI—Held in conjunction with the World Food Prize Symposium, the event featured three panelists, including IFPRI’s Rajul Pandya-Lorch, who discussed recent work exploring the intersection between agriculture and health.
Policy Seminar “Leveraging Agriculture to Tackle Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs)” September 7, Washington, DC—IFPRI—This seminar was held as lead-up event to the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, held in mid-September. Featuring experts from academia, research, and the private sector, it explored ways to exploit the linkages between agriculture and NCDs and integrate these topics into the UN dialogue. Read a review of the session in Public Health Nutrition.
European Consultation on “Reducing Malnutrition through Micronutrient-Rich Crops” June 16, Brussels, Belgium—UK Department for International Development (Dfid) and HarvestPlus—This meeting discussed how biofortification can fit into initiatives to leverage agriculture for improved nutrition and health, and explored how engagement across stakeholder can better harness this opportunity.
Brussels Briefings “Addressing ACP Nutrition Security: The Key Role of Agriculture” June 15, Brussels, Belgium—Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), IFPRI, Development and Cooperation Directorate General (DG DEVCO) of the European Commission, Concord and other partners—About 200 policymakers gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities in policy and action for achieving nutrition security in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The full program, reader, and photos from the event are available online.
Interim Report
Interim Report on Short-Term Impact of the 2020 Conference in New Delhi, by Robert Paarlberg. The report, part of an externally managed and conducted evaluation, examines the short-term impacts of events on the conference participants themselves and on the visibility of agriculture, nutrition, and health issues in the media and in popular and professional discourse. The final report will be released in November 2012.
Academic Network
The University Network on Interdisciplinary Research in Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health is a new consortium of 10 international universities to encourage information-sharing and collaboration that was created after the 2020 conference. Led by LCIRAH and facilitated by IFPRI and ILRI, the first outcome of the network is AgriHealth News, an informational newsletter that will be available shortly.
Media Resources
The Mendeley group on agriculture, nutrition, and health connects you with other practitioners, new publications, and interesting discussions.
Conference Book
We are pleased to announce that the conference book titled Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health will be released in early 2012.
We would love to hear about any events, reports, or other initiatives related to the 2020 conference and to the themes of agriculture, nutrition, and health. Please feel free to email us at: IFPRI-2020Conference@cgiar.org.
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