Читать книгу Hidden Hunger: Strategies to Improve Nutrition Quality - Группа авторов - Страница 14

The reduction of hunger and improvement of nutrition remain key policy goals in international policy. This is reflected in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The “Zero Hunger” goal No. 2 of the SDGs explicitly deals with ending the problem of hunger and all forms of malnutrition, which include hidden hunger, by 2030. The international political leaders commit to providing universal access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food, in particular for the poor and people in vulnerable situations. Furthermore, virtually all other SDGs relate to nutrition directly or indirectly as well. However, there are trade-offs between specific policy goals that have to be taken into consideration.

In order to achieve a policy goal, there is a need for proper and well-defined instruments and specific actions. A prerequisite for effective and efficient policy action is that policy makers are equipped with more instruments than goals. Figure 1 presents an illustration of this principle emphasized by Tinbergen in the early 50s [5]. The defined goal of improving nutrition requires at least 2 instruments: (1) improving nutrition services and (2) generating or transferring income to the poor. Specific actions for improving nutrition services may include (1.1) (bio-)fortification of food, that is, increasing the content of micronutrients in food during processing or in the crops through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology and/or (1.2) promoting behavioral change. The second instrument would require a focus on (2.1) propelling agricultural productivity and/or (2.2) cash transfers.

Fig. 2. Framework of nutrition and food systems. Source: von Braun [6].

The multi-dimensional character of nutrition challenges requires the deployment of a combination of multiple instruments and policy actions. This means that complex problems related for instance to income, food access, and micronutrient deficiencies require context specific combinations of interventions. Better nutrition policy therefore implies more coordination in policy making across different policy domains and innovative approaches, such as the combination of conditional cash transfers, employment guarantees, fortification, sanitation programs, small farm productivity programs, or mother and child focused nutrition interventions.