Posted on January, 26, 2023 at 02:56 am
The IGNITE project (Impacting Gender&Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture) organized a Research Summit in Nairobi, January 23 through 25, to share findings and evidence collected around six broad programmatic learning questions concerning ways of effectively and efficiently increasing women’s empowerment in agriculture as well as equitable consumption of nutritious diets. Over 70 participants attended the Summit, representing more than 20 IGNITE partners from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. The IGNITE Research Summit has brought together practitioners from the private sector, NGOs, governmental agencies, policy making agencies, researchers and academia.
With escalating food and nutrition insecurity in the world, Africa has not been spared. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 (https://bit.ly/3WDYfZw), 828 million people suffered from hunger in 2021, including 278 million people in Africa. There are many causes behind food and nutrition [in]security, and one that is often overlooked is the gender dimension.
With a conviction that gender inclusion has an influence on food and nutrition security in Africa, the IGNITE project was launched in 2018. IGNITE is a five-year investment, implemented by Tanager (www.Tanagerintl.org), in partnership with Laterite (https://bit.ly/3XDbXNB), and 60 Decibels (www.60Decibels.com) to strengthen African institutions’ ability to integrate nutrition and mainstream gender into their way of doing business and their agriculture interventions.
"IGNITE is bringing a modern gender and nutrition lens to agriculture with 18 partner organizations who are agricultural institutions, service providers, regulators and universities with a large continental reach and influence in 17 African countries,” said Maureen Munjua, IGNITE Team Leader and Tanager Country Representative in Kenya.
At the IGNITE Research Summit, the results of 16 decision-focused research studies, conducted jointly with six partner institutions, were shared, and discussed. According to these institutions, on one hand, tailored technical assistance and training, gender and nutrition coaching, strategy development and implementation support, have been key to building their staff and institutional capacities. On the other hand, evidence stemming from research and concrete recommendations are helping them improve their business activities.
Source: Zawya