Data innovations hold promise for addressing challenges across all aspects of the nutrition data value chain (DVC). The time is opportune to leverage new data sources, methods, and technology due to the increased need for high quality and real-time data brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent convenings such as the UN World Data Forum in October 2021 have also featured data innovations as a key theme to showcase the potential of new solutions.

Given the limited work around data innovations for nutrition, DataDENT conducted a landscape analysis of trends and opportunities for nutrition data innovations. We reviewed data innovations developed in or after 2015 across the following nutrition domains—diet, food security, food environment, food fortification, micronutrients, and nutrition status.

To guide our review, we first identified data innovation categories and their sub-categories which we found to be most prominent in the broader data innovation space (Figure 1). We then mapped the 60+ nutrition data innovations found in our search to these categories. We found a significant number of nutrition data innovations are mobile solutions, digitalization, or artificial intelligence. We also found the majority of innovations to be related to nutrition status and diet data, with comparatively less around food fortification data. Finally, most innovations influence the collection, analysis, and translation of data and less so which data to collect.

To read the full blog, click here.

The post DataDENT: How can innovations advance the nutrition data revolution? appeared first on Results for Development.

Before joining full-time at R4D (Results for Development), Ms. Farina was an intern on the R4D nutrition team. Currently, as senior program associate, she supports the DataDENT project on research and advocacy efforts to strengthen the nutrition data value chain through innovation and improved data systems.

Before joining R4D, Ms. Farina was a data coordinator on the COVID-19 team at Partners in Health. In this role, she performed data-related activities to support the Massachusetts contact tracing initiative including conducting data analysis to monitor the program, training staff on data quality and use, and supporting data cleaning activities.

Ms. Farina also worked with the Zambian Governance Foundation in Lusaka, Zambia to conduct research on the human resources for health shortage. She developed a policy recommendation to advocate for a formal diaspora policy which will allow the health sector to tap into the resource potential of Zambians living abroad.

Ms. Farina holds a BS in global and public health sciences with a minor in health policy from Cornell University.

The post Lexi Farina appeared first on Results for Development.

Ms. Nyaku is the nutrition practice senior program director at Results for Development (R4D), where she oversees a diverse nutrition portfolio at the country, regional and global levels. She leads strategic development initiatives which delivers technical assistance emphasizing partnerships with local or regional institutions to facilitate and support country led change processes, promote regional learnings and technical support networks, and ensure that country and regional actors and evidence are prioritized or play a bigger role in global processes.

Throughout her career, Ms. Nyaku has supported countries build capacities of country change agents from government and civil society for the prevention and management of malnutrition.

Prior to R4D, Ms. Nyaku was the technical advisor with the Alive and Thrive Program at FHI360 where she worked with the Nigeria program to develop and launch the Start Strong behavior change communication program implemented in 11 states. Start Strong has since become a government national program being scaled up to other states. She also coordinated the USAID Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition Program in 12 African countries which resulted in the development and use of evidence-based approaches and tools for community and health facility-based nutrition services and strengthening of nutrition services in routine health systems.

Ms. Nyaku is currently a member of the American Society of Nutrition.

Ms. Nyaku holds a bachelor of arts degree in home science and sociology with the University of Ghana, and a public health graduate certificate with Tulane University, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The post Albertha Nyaku appeared first on Results for Development.

As a program officer at Results for Development, Ms. Pastor provides technical and program management assistance for Frontier Health Markets Engage (FHM Engage). Within this role, Ms. Pastor leads core work activities, working with local partners on aligning understanding and building sustainability and capacity in the market development approach (MDA) and expanding existing knowledge on regulation on family planning and maternal and child health to align MDA. Areas of expertise include qualitative research, health financing, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), collaborative learning and health systems strengthening .

Prior to joining R4D, Ms. Pastor was a program associate at International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI) where she supported two projects. The first centered on post-EVD Ebola recovery response activities with a goal of supporting countries building back economic and social systems after the outbreak. The second identified priority behaviors and solution pathways for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and its partner countries to design new interventions related to energy, education, WASH and education. Before joining IBTCI, Ms. Pastor worked on her master’s thesis on commercial complementary foods among food insecure countries in Latin America.

Ms. Pastor holds a master’s degree in global health from ISGlobal-University of Barcelona and a BS in Kinesiology with a concentration in Public Health and a minor in Anthropology from The College of William and Mary. She is a native speaker of English and Spanish and speaks conversational French and Italian.

The post Maria Jose Pastor appeared first on Results for Development.

At R4D, Ms. Huestis is a program officer on the nutrition team supporting the DataDENT and Food Systems Policy Options projects. Ms. Huestis assists DataDENT in promoting and supporting strategic planning and financing for strengthening the data value chain through nutrition data innovations. She also supports the development of resources for policy makers to adopt a food systems approach for healthy diets.

Ms. Huestis has previously collaborated with R4D through joint efforts to support the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and nutrition financing community of practice. At that time, she was working as an M&E officer and technical manager for the Maximising Scaling up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN+) project, led by PATH, where she developed an assumption map of impact to document the trajectory of change of short-term TA for nutrition. She previously worked for a Mumbai-based nonprofit, SNEHA, to support a CMAM project and its mobile data collection and real-time learning tools.

Ms. Huestis has an MSc in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BSc from Amsterdam University College. She is a native English and Italian speaker, fluent in Spanish and conversational in Dutch and French.

The post Arja Huestis appeared first on Results for Development.

To answer this question, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a global event to accelerate progress to end hunger and malnutrition. This event is aligned with the imperatives of the Compact2025 initiative and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition to make accelerated progress on hunger and undernutrition by 2025 to pave the way for achieving all the SDGs. Compact2025 was launched to support the achievement of SDG2 and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. The global event was held November 28–30, 2018, taking place in Bangkok, Thailand and brought together decision makers, practictioners, researchers, and other stakeholders from around the world.

Results for Development’s Augustin Flory and Emily Thacher were in attendance and led a side session, “Data Visualization Tools for Nutrition – Empowering Decision Makers to Accelerate Progress.”

The post Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition appeared first on Results for Development.

Confronted with the growing global burden of overweight and obesity, and the need to accelerate efforts in nutrition sensitive sectors to improve nutrition outcomes, the nutrition community is increasingly focusing the role of food and diets for nutrition. Two issues should be top of mind:

1. How to accelerate the great food systems transformation required to reverse the dramatic increase in malnutrition globally
2. How to more strategically shape the food and diets innovation landscape

The Great Food Systems Transformation

As we have written here, one of the biggest challenges facing our societies is to transform food systems so that empty calories and unhealthy foods become the “fossil fuels” of food systems, and healthy, nutritious and sustainably produced foods the “renewable energies” and the drivers of comparative advantage, investments and profits for the food industry. To achieve this, we need to act with levels of systemic ambition and urgency similar to those underpinning the efforts of the climate community to decarbonize energy systems. No less.

To read the full article, click here.

The post Malnutrition Deeply: Food, Diet Innovations Key to Food Systems Transformation appeared first on Results for Development.