What does A4NH mean in INTERNATIONAL

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) is a research program dedicated to understanding how agricultural development can contribute to the fight against malnutrition and global health issues. A4NH brings together leading research institutions, donors, policymakers and civil society organisations from all over the world to work towards global food security and improved nutrition outcomes.

The main objectives of A4NH are to support small-scale farmers in developing countries to increase their productivity, reduce poverty and improve household nutrition; strengthen systems of agricultural education, training and research; promote gender equity in agriculture; diversify production systems in order to promote more diverse diets; develop strategies for managing natural resources sustainably; improve access of small-scale farmers to markets; explore ways that climate change will affect agriculture-nutrition linkages; ensure that financial services support smallholder investments in agriculture; measure changes in food consumption, dietary diversity at household level; design effective communication strategies around nutrition messaging linked with agroecological systems.

A4NH works with policy makers, researchers, practitioners, representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donor agencies, international organisations and other stakeholders who have a vested interest in addressing the challenges related to food security. The program assists these stakeholders by providing evidence-based policy advice on how unlocking agricultural innovations can help achieve sustainable improvements in nutrition. It also promotes collaboration amongst all stakeholders for better coordination in programming critical interventions for meeting those needs. Lastly it provides relevant resources that facilitate knowledge sharing across sectors both within individual countries as well as globally among regional governance bodies like EU or AU.

Yes, there are several activities that contribute towards achieving A4Nh's goals including building capacity around nutrition sensitive agriculture practices through targeted trainings tailored on specific local context which includes availability of labor resources as well as cultural preferences among households regarding how they consume their products both through transformative agriculture technologies such as precision agriculture applications or participatory approaches such as farmer field schools which are proven effective at boosting overall yields due emphasis on integrated pest management strategies and appropriate water use conservation techniques. Additionally lobbying for better policies written at both national/regional levels which will promote investments into these types of initiatives seen as integral part of economic growth strategy whilst reducing certain amounts inherent risk linked with traditional cultivation models like subsistence farming. Finally also embarking on projects looking into various forms public private partnerships aimed at delivering long term solutions by breaking silo thinking approach common across traditional charities models relying solely on external donations.