New Year message from GAIN’s Executive Director
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Healthier Diets for All
Dear Partners and Friends,
The past year was one of change, growth and expansion for GAIN. In 2002, we set out to tackle malnutrition, focusing on fortifying staple foods such as flour, oil, and salt with essential vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy life. Today, we strive to ensure we fulfil our belief that everyone should have access to healthier diets, especially the most vulnerable, by making safe nutritious foods more available and accessible.
The world is dramatically different than it was when we began, and we have learned that the challenge of making diets healthier for billions who have poor diets requires big changes to the food systems we all rely on. Last year saw continuing conflicts with direct and ripple effects of disruption to vulnerable food systems with food, agricultural inputs and fuel price rises that illustrate the connectedness of the problems which affect the global community.?Food inflation has made healthy diets less affordable in all countries.?In fact, many of the indicators we care about are moving in the wrong direction, and the people behind the numbers are suffering.
The climate crisis is fresh on everyone's mind as we round out the recent?COP28?convening, with renewed hope that leaders now see including food and agriculture as a critical part of creating a greener future.? ?
Our new strategy?that we launched last year, focuses more on achieving healthier diets for all; on improving environmental outcomes and accelerating nutrition outcomes; on reaching the most vulnerable; on achieving greater scale and impact; and on making our organisation stronger and more resilient as we enter the heart of this current decade moving towards 2030.? ?
A cumulative moment for all our work was set in motion with the?Nourishing Food Pathways?programme launched in 2023. This cross-cutting initiative backed by seven leading development donor partners focuses on strengthening government-led food system policy design, alignment and, delivery. Inspired by the work conducted during the?UN Food Systems Summit, we will work with over one hundred partners across the 10 countries to deliver this programme.? ?
During 2023 we were pleased to open?three new country offices?in Benin, Rwanda and Uganda. ?
The newsletter here under provides a snapshot of GAIN’s activities in 2023, with a focus on impact and what we achieved.
Thank you to all our partners, donors, and key stakeholders who made this possible. We look forward to continuing to work with you in 2024, lifting our impact and ambition to ensure we work towards a world in which everyone has a healthier diet produced in ways that are sustainable.
Best wishes,
Lawrence Haddad,
GAIN’s Executive Director
We had significant global engagements at the AGRF in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania for its?13th Annual Summit. This year's theme?was anchored around building Africa’s Food Systems and Food Sovereignty with the youth and women at the centre.
We had key speakers at talks focusing on the food crisis such as,?Supporting African governments to advance food systems transformation and?The Power of Data, Information & Research for Sustainable Food Systems.
COP28 was GAIN's third COP, and our first as an accredited NGO.? Throughout the year, GAIN (along with many other partners) gave significant input into the Presidency's strategic planning, attending workshops in Abu Dhabi and participating in various consultations.
GAIN had over 13 attendees and?During our two weeks at COP28, we had the opportunity to meet many colleagues and partners?GAIN also had a presence at?Africa Climate Week,?Asia Pacific Climate Week,?The Micronutrient Forum,?and?The UNFSS 2023 Stocktaking Moment.?
Read more about GAIN @ COP28
Read more about GAIN @ AGRF
Our programmes lie at the heart of everything we do, and?This year, we saw changes and growth across structure and impact.?We opened the year with two side events at?The?76th World Health Assembly.
These events focused on?Joining Forces to Improve Adolescent Nutrition and?Accelerating efforts to prevent micronutrient deficiencies and their consequences through safe and effective food fortification.?
We?launched?the?#Veg4All initiative?in Nairobi, Kenya during September -?a groundbreaking endeavour aimed at revolutionising vegetable consumption among families.
Programmes, by their nature, change, adapt and grow in response to the needs of our partners, stakeholders and what yields the maximum impact capabilities. We will be launching a new restructuring of the programmes in early 2024, stay tuned for updates and news.
This year was?particularly strong for our evidence generation, launching The?Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN)?baseline report
to provide a snapshot into the current state of integration between climate and nutrition.??
We also provided key inputs into?The Food Systems Countdown Initiative 2023 publications - aiming to?to enable understanding of the state of food systems worldwide by monitoring the state of food systems transformation through relevant data, independent of any established monitoring processes.?
GAIN saw many internal convenings, including the Narrative Building Workshops with Communications taking place in Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mozambique and a Communications Retreat. We see the value in ensuring consistent storytelling and engaged, uniform understanding of our strategy.
Lawrence Haddad, was awarded the?Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG)?by HM King Charles for “Services to International Nutrition, Food, and Agriculture”. This is an award reserved for overseas and international work that honours individuals who have rendered important services in relation to Commonwealth or foreign nations.
The Global Diet Quality Project (GDQP) by GAIN, Gallup and Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health was honoured with the prestigious Best International Research Award 2023 and the 'Liz Nelson Award for Social Impact' by the UK's Market Research Society
Don't miss our contributors blogs' selection - their thoughts available?here.
We conduct our digital campaigns with the primary goal of raising awareness about the central themes integral to our mission. These themes include securing sustainability, highlighting evidence-based solutions, and?fostering a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.?We achieve these objectives by effectively disseminating information and, in doing so, collaborate closely with our partners.
International Women's Day
International Breastfeeding Week
World MSME Day
Food Safety: The Biggest Development Challenge You’ve Never Heard Of
Warm wishes from all GAINers!?
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10 个月Excited to learn more about the Nourishing Food Pathways programme ??