Our Experience

Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU): Improving Nutrition Outcomes Through Optimized Agricultural Investments

Project Description

Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU): Improving Nutrition Outcomes Through Optimized Agricultural Investments aimed to break the intergenerational cycle of undernutrition for smallholder farm families and poor households in Sub-Saharan Africa with tailored nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs targeting women of childbearing age and children in the first 1,000 days of life, (i.e., from conception to two years).

The regional initiative, led by the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), worked with partners and beneficiaries to design, evaluate, and advocate for effective nutrition-tailored agriculture interventions.

Project Approach

ATONU explored main pathways to strengthen the nutritional value of agriculture. Chief among these are the following: 1) changes in food produced for household consumption (i.e., encouraging the production of nutrient-dense foods); 2) changes in food produced to generate agricultural income; and 3) empowerment of women, who are instrumental to household food security and health.

ATONU accomplished its objectives through four main packages:

• Work Package 1—focus on design, intervention, monitoring, evaluation, and learning tools; guide the selection of agriculture investments and determine best interventions
• Work Package 2—provide technical assistance for the implementation and evaluation of context-specific tailored nutrition interventions and provide proof of concept
• Work Package 3—focus on policy advocacy, communications, and knowledge management and disseminate ATONU’s research evidence to influence the wider national and international development agendas
• Work Package 4—strengthen the capacity of participating individuals and African institutions

Impact and Accomplishments

The ATONU project provides technical assistance to integrate tailored nutrition interventions into planned and ongoing agricultural investments and will accomplish the following:

• Generate tools and frameworks for diagnosing the opportunities to incorporate tailored nutrition interventions into agriculture investments
• Document best practices and evidence and add to the agriculture-for-nutrition knowledge base
• Strengthen African capacity by building a community of practice in agriculture for improved nutrition

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