Evidence to action: Highlights from Transform Nutrition research 2012-2017

By:
Stuart Gillespie, John Hoddinott, Nicholas Nisbett, Shams Arifee, and Mara van den Bold
Date:
2018

Evidence from the Transform Nutrition Research consortium led by the International Food Policy Research Institute focusing on how to transform the delivery of proven nutrition interventions. This paper has important findings for policymakers looking to optimise governance environments for effective cross-sectoral collaboration. It highlights the importance of fostering champions and high-level backing of nutrition programs and policies, alongside the role of evidence in decision-making.  The research also looks at transforming agriculture through social protection, and the importance of behavior change initiatives. This is a worthwhile read for anyone looking to understand the wider environments for public private collaborations. 

There is also a short review of PPPs in this paper, which finds that:

  1. There are not enough high-quality, independent evaluations of the impact of private-sector engagement in nutrition
  2. The pervasive environment of mistrust needs to be proactively addressed by both public and private sectors. This may take time (the review found no examples of successful PPPs that took less than 2 years to establish).  
  3. PPPs are most likely to succeed where the nutritional benefits are significant and where public-sector solutions are not readily available, effective, or sustainable. 
This resource has been peer reviewed