Feed Africa: Food security
Background:
UNICEF Rwanda and the national nutrition sector in general have put their efforts in recent years in promoting a diversified diet in order to address some of the underlying causes of malnutrition. However, this diversification in local food production has not always been in line with promoted agricultural policy of cash cropping and mono-cropping in certain areas in Rwanda. However, there is no elaborate evidence available which explores the links between agricultural production being focused on limited crops, food prices in the local market for nutritious foods, and the rates for dietary diversity and dietary frequency amongst to local population.
Challenge statement:
There is a need to look at the possible links between food security and nutrition and availability of diverse nutrition rich foods at local markets as well as the price of these foods in local markets. The hypothesis to test is that in areas where agricultural production is focused on 1-2 crops (e.g. in the tea and coffee belt of the Western Province), the availability of a variety of foods is limited and the price of these foods will be higher compared to areas where there is higher crop diversification in the agricultural production. The link to nutrition should be measured through the standard measures of dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency.
We are looking for innovative data-driven solutions that would link sourced market-prices and known nutrition indicators and cross-check between different geographical areas in Rwanda with limited diversity in agricultural produce and more diversity in agricultural produce.