Nutrition-sensitive agriculture: New term or new concept?

Abstract

Background: Within the post-2015 agenda discussions of the United Nations, sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being drafted. In this context, nutrition-sensitive agriculture has been introduced. Nutrition-sensitive approaches in general are not new. They refer to improving or at least avoiding harm to the underlying and basic causes of malnutrition presented in the UNICEF conceptual framework. In order to answer the question of whether nutrition-sensitive agriculture is only a new term or also a new actionable concept with a comprehensive definition, framework, and political will, a questionnaire-based survey with representatives from 18 agricultural ministries of various countries was conducted on the basis of a literature review. Furthermore, the Final Communiqué of the Berlin Agriculture Ministers' Summit 2014 was analyzed as an indication of political commitment following the steps of the qualitative content analysis of Mayring. Results: Care was considered less than food security and health in the responses to the questionnaire and was not mentioned at all in the final communiqué. In the survey and the communiqué, mainly health aspects related to food safety and water issues were mentioned. However, the most mentioned aspect regarding food security was diversification/diversity. Because of the small sample size of the survey, the findings cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, together with the analysis of the communiqué, the results give some valuable insight into the interests of agricultural politicians for nutrition-sensitive agriculture and indicate that nutrition-sensitive agriculture has rarely been discussed from a systemic perspective. This is confirmed in the criticism expressed that an opportunity to address nutrition in a multisectoral approach that considers all underlying causes of malnutrition-food insecurity, poor health, and lack of care-was missed during the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). Conclusions: In conclusion, nutrition-sensitive agriculture seems to be more of a term than a concept at the time of this study. To make ICN2 count in coming years and comprehensively address nutrition through a SDG, a systemic approach and true cross-sector collaboration are needed.