Overview
This project is analysing Pacific agri-food systems to promote healthier, more diverse diets for people.
The Pacific food system is failing to provide the people of the region with nutritious food. The many paradoxes of apparently abundant fish, vegetables and root crops with poor public health outcomes presents a significant challenge for policy makers.
Per capita agricultural and coastal fisheries production are declining, and imports of nutritionally unrewarding food are increasing. These trends, along with external drivers including urbanization, migration, and globalized food trade conflate to accelerate the nutrition transition in the region. As a consequence, Pacific island countries are greatly affected by the triple burden of malnutrition - the coexistence of undernutrition, nutrient deficiencies, and obesity.
The project will bring together communities, provincial and national line agencies to recommend actions to improve local food environments, and support national policies to promote healthier, more diverse diets.
Expected outcomes
- Complete integrated analyses of dimensions of the agri-food system at regional and national scales
- Analyse policy coherence across food system sectors and identify opportunities to strengthen policy in focal countries
- Characterise informal markets and prioritise actions that enhance nutritional outcomes from local food environments in Solomon Islands
- Develop diagnostic tools to improve policy interventions in national agri-food systems and improved metrics for reporting status and progress against national, regional and global targets
