Leveraging food and agriculture policy mapping and analysis for nutrition‐sensitive planning
Authors: Meerman Janice , Dode Marie Caroline , Dufour Charlotte 
Published: November 2023

Introduction

Food and agriculture policies can support nutrition by increasing incentives for the production, processing, retail and consumption of healthy diets. A preliminary step in provision of such support is improved understanding of how existing policies, legal frameworks and investments shape food environments.

Currently, multiple initiatives are underway to map and analyse food and agriculture policies. Although these initiatives’ intended function is informing agricultural policy makers on productivity and other conventional sector goals, their outputs also represent an untapped resource for better understanding how food and agriculture policies impact the producer and consumer behaviours which shape food environments and eventually, nutrition.

Study Objective

In 2014, FAO's Nutrition and Agricultural Economics Divisions commissioned a stocktaking of food and agriculture policy mapping initiatives, with the objectives of understanding what information is available and how that information can be used to inform nutrition‐sensitive agriculture planning.

Methods

Methods consisted of a desk review of documents and websites, as well as semi‐structured interviews with over 50 FAO staff. Thirty FAO and thirty‐four non‐FAO initiatives were included in the exercise. A recently published conceptual framework linking agriculture and food system policies to diets (Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, 2014) was used to organize the results.

Results

Results indicate that some FAO initiatives are providing information and modeled estimates which can add value to food policy research and analysis in support of nutrition‐sensitive planning. Specifically, the Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis tool (FAPDA), From Protection‐to Production (PtoP), the Legislation Assessment Tool for Gender‐Equitable Land Tenure (LAT), Monitoring and Analyzing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP), and FAOLEX, which is a legislative database.

Data and information generated by these initiatives include commodity price monitoring and analyses, mapping of consumer‐facing food and social protection policies, statistics on government and partner investments in agriculture, evaluations of cash transfer programmes, and monitoring of food security, including statistics on harvests and import requirements.

Conclusion

These outputs could ‐ potentially ‐ provide valuable information on how certain policies shape food environments and subsequent diet options. As such, they could also inform advocacy and programming efforts to increase nutrition sensitivity within agriculture. For example, initiatives such as MAFAP and FAPDA, which monitor and analyze trade and price policies for maize, rice and other staple crops provide important information on producer incentives. This type of information is imperative to pro‐nutrition strategies aiming to diversify food crop production. Similarly, initiatives such as PtoP and FAOLEX, which map consumer‐facing policies (e.g. cash transfers, food subsidies) can provide valuable information on the incentives which shape people's food choices in a particular context.

Support or Funding Information

FAO, Nutrition Division (ESN)