Nutrition Security in India

Evolving Effective and Demonstrable Models involving Public and Private Sector to address Nutritional Security : A Pilot in India

Project Overview

Nutrition is central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 development agenda. Despite strong constitutional provisions, legislative policy, plan and programme commitments, India suffers from a high burden of under nutrition and micronutrient deficiency diseases. The statistics on nutritional status indicate that India has been a laggard on the issue, among fast-growing economies and also in the region. With a ranking of 102 of 119 on the Global Hunger Index 2019 and 130 of 189 on the Human Development Index 2018 , India is home to almost one-fourth of the world’s chronically undernourished people (190.7 million out of 815 million). Therefore, SDG 2 – Zero Hunger cannot be achieved globally unless it is achieved in India.

Centre for Responsible Business (CRB), United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) and Cargill India have teamed up to address the issue of malnutrition and SDG 2. The project addresses Nutritional Security in India by aligning with the priorities of the POSHAN Abhiyan along with engaging the public and the private sector to collaborate and find ways to co-create possible approaches to address the problem collectively. The core project components include building collaborative platforms, providing for supplementary nutrition, working on improved care and nutrition practices and creation of an effective nutrition value chain

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Objectives

Identify, map and engage with stakeholders across value chain
Generate awareness, share good practices & knowledge among key groups
Build capacities and handhold officials for greater efficacy & effectiveness
Develop and scale business models for private sector engagement
Document findings & distil learnings for evidence- based policy & systemic recommendations

Anticipated Outcomes

The project activities would be implemented with the following objectives:

Improved nutritional knowledge, awareness and behaviours amongst key groups in the community
Reduction in prevalence of malnutrition in children between six to 36 months of age
Confident and empowered government officials and local stakeholders to successfully pursue food and nutrition targets at the state-level
Private sector (including SMEs) to effectively engage in food and nutrition issues in their states and districts

Events

Session on, 'Partnership for Nutrition Catalyzing public – private partnerships on Nutrition Security’ at CRB's ISS Conference 2020, 30 October, 2020

Nutrition session at CRB conference 2020 titled ‘Partnership for Nutrition Catalyzing public – private partnerships on Nutrition Security’. The overarching objective of the session is to deepen the understanding and importance of “access to and availability of nutrition in pursuance of SDG 2 goal and delivering on national nutrition targets through innovative approaches and models. The session will also be used as a launchpad for the initiative on nutrition security that the three organisations WFP, Cargill and CRB have come together.

The Panel Discussion looked at

Understanding the nutrition ecosystem and its importance
Talking about challenges and gaps in availability and accessibility to good nutrition
Highlight the role private sector can play in aiding government initiatives;public-private partnership models and their implementation

Session on, 'Nutrition Security for India - Evolving Effective and Demonstrable Models involving Public and Private Sector' at CRB's ISS 2019, 21 November 2019

On 21 November 2019, as part of CRB’s Annual Conference India Sustainability Standards (ISS) 2019, a session on Nutrition Security for India – Evolving Effective and Demonstrable Models involving Public and Private Sector was held at The Eros Hotel, New Delhi. The session which was co-hosted by UNWFP and Cargill India, looked at

Highlighting the larger nutrition scenario in India and the government framework in place i.e. food safety nets.
Putting spotlight on ICDS, specifically the first 1000 days and the Take Home Rations.
The role of Private sector in Nutrition Security, the opportunities and way forward.
The significance of behaviour change and the role of CSOs.
The need for policy reforms and the emerging aspects of quality assurance that are emerging and a critical role that a regulator – FSSAI plays in such a dynamic scenario.

Nutrition Security for India - Project Partners Meeting, 8 July, 2019

On July 8, 2019, a Project Partners Meeting was held at Cargill India Office in Gurugram, Haryana. The meeting included representatives from UNWFP, CRB and Cargill India and was planned to

Discuss the overview of the project along with the Governance and Structure
Review the project components and broad Partner Responsibilities amongst Partners
Develop and agree on the Action Plan for the next six months for each partner
Discuss the Impact Matrix looking at activities, outputs, outcomes and impact from the project

Projects

Nutrition Innovation Mini-Challenge

Tackling the issue of nutrition demands a combination of multi-front and multi-stakeholder approach. The necessity now is to develop collaborations among the public and private players that are both granular and provide customized value-addition to lead impact at the micro/community level. Public-Private-Partnerships or PPP (where the private sector includes institutions, organizations, MSMEs, SMEs) can play a big role in the transition towards nutrition security by bringing together experts, organizations and institutions that can support each other in implementing a holistic programme.

The mini challenge has been conceived of as a part of the project ‘Poshan Pehal aur Pragati’ co-led by Cargill India, Centre for Responsible Business and UN World Food Programme. The Initiative is guided by the goal of improving the nutrition intake in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life starting from conception till two years after birth by improving the nutritional quality of Take-Home Ration (THR) served to children, pregnant and lactating mothers. The programme identifies the private sector as an important stakeholder in enhancing and strengthening the efforts on the delivery of SDG 2 and national nutrition targets. Read more here