Businesses both shape and respond to consumer demand.
Understanding what consumers want to eat and why is one of the most complex aspects of creating demand for nutritious foods. Consumer preferences and motivations are tied to personal, cultural, and religious beliefs; they are influenced by geography, income and gender; and they shape and are shaped by identity.
So how can public private engagement (PPE) help address some of the barriers that prevent consumers from regularly purchasing and consuming nutritious foods? What research is needed to better understand consumer attitudes, preferences and behaviours? What can the private sector do to make healthy food more appealing, convenient and affordable? What can policymakers do promote nutrition education, and help ensure that everyone – regardless location or income level – can access and afford the safe and nutritious foods they want? How can civil society help create momentum behind consumer interest campaigns, and hold businesses and governments accountable? How can donors help de-risk investments in nutritious food businesses while demand – and the market to support it – grows?
The resources in this section will help to address these questions, and explore ways in which the public and private sectors can empower consumers to demand nutritious and safe food, as well as approaches to promote food that is affordable, available and desirable.
Top resources we think matter
Case studies and tools:
A highly recommended resource on consumer demand from the perspective of public private engagement.
Case studies and tools:
Base of the pyramid typically refers to the largest and poorest socio-economic grouping, and it is estimated that people in this ‘category’ spend u
Advocacy and policy:
This brief from the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition calls on both public and private sector
Case studies and tools:
Presentation by the BoP Innovation Centre – an independent foundation created to deliver a one-stop shop for business, investors, and advisors with
Reports and discussion papers:
The demand engine: Growth hacking strategies for scaling demand at the bottom of the pyramid.
Reports and discussion papers:
A global review of food-based dietary guidelines
Audio/videos/podcasts:
Nutrition at the bottom of the pyramid webinar
Reports and discussion papers:
Innovation in large-scale nutrition surveys report
Initiatives:
Food Switch India
Blogs/news/opinion:
How big brands are fuelling the business of nutrition
Reports and discussion papers:
The cost of nutritious food in South Asia
Reports and discussion papers:
Global Nutrition Report 2018 - Chapter 4: What people eat and why it matters
Audio/videos/podcasts:
Podcast: The planetary health diet
Advocacy and policy:
Shifting diets for a sustainable food future
Blogs/news/opinion:
Perspectives on factors driving new trends in the food and drink industry
Blogs/news/opinion:
Inspiring Indonesian mothers to change their eating and feeding practices
Looking for more?
We have pulled together evidence and experience to make it easy for you to find, understand and use the best available evidence and experience to stimulate public-private action and investment for nutrition.
Initiatives
Nourish Our World (NOW)
NOW (Nourish our World) puts the power of demand creation behind improving quality diets in developing countries, especially amongst low-income consumers. Good quality diet is central to tackling all forms of malnutrition and comes from a complex web of daily decisions. Its mission is to increase testing and at scale use of demand creation strategies, be a platform for best practice and to generate sustainable funding streams for demand creation. NOW in an initiative managed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and was created in partnership with Ananda Partners, The Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics, Quantum Consumer Solutions, Sight & Life and System 1 Agency.
Fighting Obesity through Offer and Demand (FOOD)
The European FOOD programme is a partnership coalition with members from government, business, academia and civil society. It uses a unique approach to promote balanced nutrition and aims to improve the nutritional quality of the food offered in restaurants and to facilitate consumer choice through improved information and increased awareness, communicated via employers to their employees.
Looking for other nutrition champions?
Explore the organisations, platforms and initiatives to see who else is working to promote better nutrition through public private engagement.
Stories
Creating demand for orange flesh sweet potatoes in Mozambique
Creating demand for orange flesh sweet potatoes in Mozambique
This initiative was led by a partnership among between Michigan State University, the National Institute of Agronomic Research of Mozambique, the Southern African Root Crops Research Network, the Ministry of Health, World Vision, Helen Keller International to improve agricultural outcomes for farmers and nutritional outcomes for under-fives. By introducing orange flesh sweet potatoes (OFSP), which are both a drought-resistant crop and a good source of energy and Vitamin A. The project had a three step approach: 1) Introduction of a new source of vitamin A and energy, with training on production and storage techniques. 2) Demand creation and empowerment through knowledge, including radio campaigns, theatre performances and group learning sessions on feeding practices, hygiene, and dietary diversity. 3) Market development for OFSP roots and processed products, which linked farmers to traders and informed consumers about where they can purchase OFSP.
By using a public-private engagement approach, links to markets with adequate consumer demand encouraged greater production, which stimulated their income as well as benefited additional customers. Demand for OFSP was expected to continue if profitable opportunities to process OSFP were created. Overall, the scale and impact of this study was relatively limited but most importantly, Vitamin A levels for young children in participating households was eight times higher than that of children in non-participating households.
