Promoting Nutrition-Sensitive Innovation Across the Food System: Introduction to the Work of the New Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab
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USAID and Feed the Future's newest Innovation Lab, the Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL), is a consortium of partners led by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. In target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the Lab’s goal is to identify, study, and promote the uptake of novel technologies, practices or information flows that help in:
- Reducing food loss and waste,
- Improve food safety, and
- Enhance access to nutrient-dense (often perishable) foods.
FSN-IL’s consortium of U.S. academic partners, global development institutions, and food value chain and business collaborators will work across three core integrated activities—research for development (R4D), human and institutional capacity development (HICD), and stakeholder engagement. The goal is to support the uptake of food system innovations for improved diet quality and nutrition in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. FSN-IL’s key research areas include food safety and storage innovations, diet quality of women and girls, drivers of consumption choice by low-income consumers, understanding risks associated with climate change, and the need for resilience. FSN-IL aims to start its work in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Mozambique, with the goal of expanding work in the next five years to other USAID priority countries.
In this webinar, we will introduce the objectives of FSNIL in the context of global food system priorities. We will discuss FSN-IL’s research and capacity building agenda and highlight how FSN-IL plans to support the broader objectives of USAID and Feed the Future. Attendees will be invited to submit questions during the webinar, which will be answered live during our Q&A segment.
Moderator:
Meghan Anson- Ms. Meghan Anson is a Senior Nutrition Advisor with USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. In this role, she provides technical expertise in the design, management, and monitoring and evaluation of activities that deliver safe and nutritious foods through the food system. Meghan holds an MA in International Studies and Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Denver and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Delivery Science for International Nutrition from Tufts University.
Speakers:
Shawn K. Baker- Mr. Shawn Baker is the Chief Nutritionist for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he chairs the Agency’s Nutrition Leadership Council and oversees the vision and strategy of the Agency’s Center for Nutrition in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. Prior to joining USAID, Mr. Baker was the first Director of Nutrition at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the former Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at Helen Keller International. He has served on committees and advisory groups including the Technical Review Panel for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Mr. Baker has a Master of Public Health from Tulane University, with concentrations in international health and nutritional epidemiology. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Miami and has over 30 years of experience in global public health nutrition.
Patrick Webb- Dr. Patrick Webb is the Alexander McFarlane Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Director of the Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab. Until 2005, Professor Webb was the Chief of Nutrition at the United Nations World Food Programme. He has served on numerous task forces and global advisory panels and is currently the senior advisor to the high-level Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.
Shibani Ghosh- Dr. Shibani Ghosh is a Research Associate Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She is the Associate Director for the Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab and also the Principal Investigator of the Jordan Nutrition Innovation Lab. She has experience working in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and her research interests are in understanding the role of agriculture in improving nutrition while ensuring health, assessing the diet and non-diet determinants of nutritional status of infants and young children, and testing interventions aimed at improving maternal and infant nutrition and growth.
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