Inclusive Food Systems
At KIT Royal Tropical Institute, we specialise in improving the understanding of the ways in which agriculture and health contribute to better nutrition outcomes.
Specifically, we work with development actors who are involved in addressing malnutrition in multi-sectoral programmes. These include national and international NGOs, local and national governments in low and middle-income countries, bilateral and multi-lateral organisations, research and educational institutions and the private sector.
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Project
Making Stakeholder Collaboration Effective
KIT Royal Tropical Institute has been supporting CRP MAIZE in strengthening stakeholder interaction and the capacity of its staff to make such interaction contribute to research impact. Together with MAIZE innovation specialists, we document and analyse the work being done in four projects (two in Africa, one in Asia and one in Latin America), supporting cross-learning between projects, as well as with the larger agricultural research community.
Read more about Making Stakeholder Collaboration Effective
Our Approach & Expertise
We bring a holistic approach to food systems, one which focuses on the continuum between agriculture, food security, gender dynamics, and health. At the same time, we work to shape the implementation processes and incentives that are needed to work across multiple sectors and stakeholders. Our specific areas of expertise include nutrition sensitive value chain analysis; integrating nutrition in agricultural development using a gender lens; and multi-sectoral coordination and multi-stakeholder processes for improved nutrition governance.
Enhancing Food Security
We help governments and development partners to increase the nutritional impact of their investments in agricultural initiatives that enhance food security. There is an imminent need to capture evidence for the contribution of agriculture and food systems to ensure the availability of, and access to adequate, affordable, diverse, and nutritious food. Driving projects to become nutrition-sensitive involves not only increasing productivity, production and/or incomes, but also requires changes in consumption habits and practices. This is mediated by gender, requires policy engagement and dialogue and also hinges on coordination with interventions from other sectors. To this end, we help develop and strengthen technical, analytical and managerial capabilities of implementing partners to support the design and implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture development projects.
Integrating gender
Very few agencies are able to operationalise a gender-nutrition lens in agricultural development programs. This is especially important for implementing organisations who are looking for methods and tools to analyse realities in the field and identify suitable intervention options. We also capitalize on our expertise in sustainable economic development to facilitate institutional change processes by creating mechanisms and building capacities at different levels that are needed to create an enabling environment that sustains the impact of the interventions.
The uniqueness of our approach is grounded in our application of a gender-nutrition lens to make agriculture development programmes nutrition-sensitive. While looking at the role of the women empowerment pathway to improved nutrition, specific attention is given to the differences between women and men in terms of social norms, values, access and control over resources, roles and decision making in relation to production and consumption of food. In the context of value chains, the nutrition lens positions women as the exclusive drivers of food and nutrition security, and examines critical points for food and nutrient losses, improving food safety and enhancing nutrition value in different stages of food value chains. To promote nutritious food we support business models and demand creation strategies where the enterprises not only make affordable nutritious food products available to low-income consumers but create employment opportunities and incentives for youth and women.
Explore our Services
Policy & Programme Design
KIT Royal Tropical Institute operates at the intersection of theory and practice and between policy and implementation, translating good intentions into meaningful social and economic impact.
More about Policy & Programme DesignProject Implementation
KIT Royal Tropical Institute has more than 80 experts specialising in public health systems, epidemiology, sexual and reproductive health and rights, agricultural innovation, food value-chains, gender relations, and inclusive finance. The combination of this expertise and process-related skills not only leads to better projects, it also builds competencies in project design, implementation and management.
More about Project ImplementationEducation, training and coaching
There is probably no better contribution towards sustainable development than investing in people and building capacities at all levels. KIT Royal Tropical Institute plays a major role in this by offering a range of education and capacity building services, from formal education at masters level to client-oriented training and coaching support. Our training and coaching programmes are tailor-made to address the unique objectives and capacities of the requesting organisation.
More about Education, training and coachingMonitoring, Evaluation & Impact Assessment
Monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment are powerful tools to assess health, social, and economic impact. They allow us to learn what works and why. Our expertise and track record in these areas make us well-equipped to evaluate your work.
More about Monitoring, Evaluation & Impact Assessment
