On April 16, The Chicago Council launched a new report, Healthy Food for a Healthy World: Leveraging Agriculture and Food to Improve Global Nutrition, at the Global Food Security Symposium 2015. Each week, we will highlight one of the report’s recommendations in a new post on the Global Food for Thought blog. This blog series will explore how the strengths and ingenuity of the agriculture and food sector can reduce the reality and risks of malnutrition globally. Watch for a new post each Wednesday, and join the discussion using #GlobalAg. 

Private-sector firms play a leading role in shaping agricultural value chains throughout the globe. While value chains have traditionally emphasized adding economic value to agricultural goods while making foods safe, smart investments could simultaneously improve the nutritional value of foods as well. Worldwide, the private sector is taking an active role in improving global food security and nutrition. Public-private partnerships and other innovative approaches can help to leverage the private sector’s expertise in order to reduce food losses, enhance food safety, create jobs, and increase access to nutrient-rich foods.

In several instances, these public-private partnerships for global nutrition are already in place. For example, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched in 2012, is a shared commitment to inclusive agricultural growth in Africa that involves Africa’s leadership along with private sector partners and donors. Through the New Alliance, the US government should ensure that cooperative frameworks between Africa’s country governments, G8 countries, and private-sector companies include clearly stated goals and target outcomes on nutrition. Building primary processing capabilities and improving rural infrastructure are examples of win-win investments.

Basic investments in electrical grids, sewage and water systems, roads, rails, and access to other public services should also be at the forefront of efforts to improve supply chains in low- and middle-income countries. In addition to US government support as part of its long-term food and nutrition security strategy, development assistance funding through the Millennium Challenge Corporation could be directed toward strengthening rural infrastructure.

Using renewable energy sources, especially solar power, to generate electricity for refrigeration and freezing of harvested crops, for example, could help to improve access to perishable foods, reduce food waste, increase incomes through new job opportunities and minimize greenhouse gas emissions associated with postharvest processing. Financing from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US government’s development finance institution, could be directed to firms that are leading efforts to reduce postharvest losses to ensure that initiatives enhance or maintain rather than diminish the nutritional quality of foods.

Food safety is an essential goal in protecting the health and welfare of poor farming households and consumers in low-income countries. The private sector is poised to deliver effective solutions for improving food safety, such as reducing exposure to mycotoxins, a poisonous fungus that develops during the harvest, production, and storage of grains, nuts, and other crops and has a significant impact on human health. Mycotoxin contamination of food crops is one of the most pressing food safety challenges in developing countries, due to poor post-harvest storage practices. Mycotoxins are estimated to contaminate as much as one-quarter of all agricultural harvests worldwide. Maize in particular, a staple crop for much of Sub-Saharan Africa, is especially vulnerable to contamination.

Public-private partnerships comprised of leading seed, processing, and storage companies could be established with the specific objective of reducing mycotoxin exposure in the global food supply by 50 percent by 2030. Such a partnership would require investments in training farmers, extension agents, and stakeholders throughout the food supply chain in appropriate crop management and harvest practices as well as in the equipment, facilities, and technologies necessary to properly harvest, store, screen, and transport agricultural goods.  

Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) is a public-private partnership that helps fight malnourishment in East Africa by matching private-sector expertise with the needs of local food processors. Four companies participate, each lending expertise from their core business competencies: General Mills (blended flours), Cargill (vegetable oils), Royal DSM (fortification of staple foods), and Bühler (process engineering). With funding from USAID, TechnoServe is the PFS implementing partner in the field, facilitating relationships with small business to enhance capacity of food processors, create sustainable linkages throughout the value chain, build the local environment for sustained processor growth, and promote a learning agenda.

TechnoServe works with local companies to identify areas where outside guidance can help the companies produce better, more nutritious food. Experts from the PFS companies then develop solutions remotely, applying cutting-edge industry expertise. Working in five countries—Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Ethiopia—the partnership helps processors increase the annual volume of nutritious food products sold to aid markets by 18.6 percent. Last year, annual sales of improved nutritious products grew 35 percent over the previous year, with approximately 100 companies supported.

Such partnerships between businesses and governments, along with civil society and other stakeholders, can ensure that the innovation and expertise of the private sector is effectively leveraged to improve global nutrition.

References:

• Feed the Future. “The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.” Last modified August 12, 2014.
• Iverson, Louise. “Healthy Food Must Be Safe Food.” Global Food for Thought Blog, April 8, 2015.
• New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. “About.” Accessed May 11, 2015.
• Smith, J. E., and G. L. Solomons. Mycotoxins in Human Nutrition and Health. Brussels: European Commission CG XII, 1994.
• Unnevehr, Laurian, and Delia Grace, eds. Aflatoxins: Finding Solutions for Improved Food Safety. 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Focus Brief 20. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2013.