Nigerian High Level Policy Dialogue on Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture
Akinwumi Adesina, Global Panel member and Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, convened the Policy Dialogue and joined colleague Panel member Emmy Simmons in a panel discussion ‘What is a Nutrition Transformative Agricultural Policy in a Developing Country Context?’
Akinwimi Adesina presented the Global Panel and showed a video featuring all Global Panel members talking about the importance of making agriculture work for nutrition. In this video, Panel members talk about their commitment to catalyse collaboration and build understanding across sectors to improve nutrition through agriculture and food systems, contributing to a stronger, better nourished future.
Emmy Simmons gave a lead presentation on how agriculture and food system policies can influence nutrition. She presented the key findings of the Global Panel’s Technical Brief and explained that the food environment from which consumers should be able to create healthy diets is influenced by four domains of economic activity:
- Agricultural production
- Markets and trade systems
- Consumer purchasing power
- Food transformation and consumer demand.
Emmy mentioned that in each of these domains there are a range of policies that can have enormous influence on nutritional outcomes. A number of policies and interventions in a number of areas need to be considered simultaneously — even as the context for Nigeria’s food environment is rapidly changing.
The event, organised by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), engaged influential stakeholders and development partners from Nigeria’s agricultural industry, representatives of international organisations, the donor community, NGOs and the civil society, in order to focus on the nation’s agricultural and nutrition policy. In particular the event’s main objective was to drive a high profile advocacy effort to raise the profile of nutrition sensitive agriculture and shape agricultural policy efforts that would enhance nutrition in Nigeria, and to create a shared understanding and engage international expertise and best practices on nutrition transformative agricultural policies and programmes.