Are agriculture and nutrition policies and practice coherent? Stakeholder evidence from Afghanistan

Abstract

Despite recent improvements in the national average, stunting levels in Afghanistan exceed 70% in some Provinces. Agriculture serves as the main source of livelihood for over half of the population and has the potential to be a strong driver of a reduction in under-nutrition. This article reports research conducted through interviews with stakeholders in agriculture and nutrition in the capital, Kabul, and four provinces of Afghanistan, to gain a better understanding of the institutional and political factors surrounding policy making and the nutrition-sensitivity of agriculture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 46 stakeholders from central government and four provinces, including staff from international organizations, NGOs and universities. We found evidence of interdisciplinary communication at the central level and within Provinces, but little evidence of vertical coordination in policy formulation and implementation between the centre and Provinces. Policy formulation and decision making were largely sectoral, top-down, and poorly contextualised. The weaknesses identified in policy formulation, focus, knowledge management, and human and financial resources inhibit the orientation of national agricultural development strategies towards nutrition-sensitivity. Integrating agriculture and nutrition policies requires explicit leadership from the centre. However, effectiveness of a food-based approach to reducing nutrition insecurity will depend on decentralising policy ownership to the regions and provinces through stronger subnational governance. Security and humanitarian considerations point to the need to manage and integrate in a deliberate way the acute humanitarian care and long-term development needs, of which malnutrition is just one element.

Food production and consumption in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan: the challenges of sustainability and seasonality for dietary diversity

“…Low dietary diversity is one important dimension of nutrition insecurity. A very high dependence in Afghanistan on wheat consumption and the vulnerability of supplies to erratic rain-fed production is widely acknowledged (GoIRA, 2012;MAIL, 2016;Obaidim et al, 2015;Poole, Echavez, & Rowland, 2018). In fact, a diet of bread and tea is the staple.…”

“…In the human environment, sustained economic growth, improved national security, and efficient and effective delivery of public services such as health and education are essential for improved livelihoods. Specific and appropriately formulated interventions through better public agriculture and nutrition policies are also necessary (Poole et al, 2018).…”

“…There needs to be a range of indicators that embrace the natural and social environments, including the gender issues in production, markets and consumption (Poole, 2018). Currently, policy coherence in Afghanistan is weak (Poole et al, 2018), and nutrition is not prioritized. Above all, political solutions to the prevailing national insecurity will enable sustainable improvement to be made in nutrition-sensitive agricultural development.…”

Research on agro-food sustainability transitions: where are food security and nutrition?

“…Both terms acknowledge the importance of addressing key nutritional concerns for achieving food security and emphasise the need for greater integration of nutrition into food security programmes and policies (Committee on World Food Security 2012). Until recently, most food-related policies and interventions, especially those related to agriculture, were rarely designed with nutrition as their primary objective or their primary concern (Allen and de Brauw 2018; FAO 2013; Poole et al 2018;UNSCN 2016;Thow et al 2018). Nevertheless, food security is essential to ensuring adequate nutrition, and the two concepts-food security and nutrition security-are interlinked and overlap (FAO 2013(FAO , 2017.…”

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“…Традицион но большинство связанных с пищевыми продуктами стратегий редко рассматри вали питание в качестве их основной цели или главной проблемы (Аллен и де Брау [1]; Пул и др. [2]; Тау и др. [3]).…”