Intervention Co-creation to Improve Community-based Food Production and Household Nutrition in Small Island Developing States (ICoFaN)

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One in five members of the United Nations are small island developing states (SIDS): 38 countries with a combined population of 61 million. The majority of these are poor, eligible for official development assistance, and over a quarter are 'least developed' countries. They have high burdens of malnutrition, including overweight and obesity alongside anaemia in women of reproductive age, and additionally some, such as Haiti, also have high burdens of childhood stunting. Over the past 3 decades malnutrition in SIDS has been exacerbated by an increasing reliance on food imports, the majority of which are of low nutritional quality. SIDS Governments have committed to increasing the local production and consumption of nutritious food as a way of increasing food security and sovereignty and addressing the high burden of malnutrition related morbidity and mortality. This proposal is intended to add to the evidence base and research capacity to support these policy commitments. The proposal builds on development work undertaken in partnership with the Universities of the South Pacific and West Indies in two SIDS: Fiji and St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) respectively. Through this work evaluation methods were developed and pilot data collected. In addition, relationships were established with two local and very well established NGOs, the Foundation for Rural Integration and Enterprise Development (FRIEND) in Fiji and Richmond Vale Academy in SVG. In this proposal we will co-create community based interventions to improve local food production and consumption with these two NGOs and evaluate their impacts on household nutrition and household expenditures. Mixed methods will be used, including quantitative household surveys, qualitative in-depth group interviews and photo voice. The design of the interventions will be informed by preliminary work that identifies and appraises available evidence on current dietary intakes in those settings, and the nutritional value of locally produced foods. The design will also be informed by 'mapping' the food systems in Fiji and SVG. This will be done by engaging stakeholders from across the food value chain in a participatory process, including a workshop, in which the factors, and the relationships between them, contributing to the burdens of malnutrition will be drawn. In addition, to the full development and testing of interventions in Fiji and SVG, new work will be undertaken in Haiti. In Haiti available dietary and nutritional evidence will also be collated and appraised, and stakeholders engaged in mapping the food system. Pilot data will be collected in the Nippes region of Haiti, including on household nutrition and the opportunities for increasing household and small holder food production as a means to improving nutrition. This work will inform the design of an intervention ready for further roll out and evaluation.