Senior expert at A4NH - Food Systems for Healthier Diets Anchoring and Upscaling

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) leads the Flagship research programme Food Systems for Healthier Diets (FSHD), part of the IFPRI-led CRP Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). In this programme WUR heads a large consortium, including five CGIAR partners. This programme aims at responding to concerns about global diet trends and demands from countries on how to promote sustainable and systemic food system transformations for healthier diets to address problems of under­nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and over-nutrition. By adopting a food systems approach, including food production, distribution, waste disposal, and food consumption, FS4HD aims to understand the interactions between these different elements and act upon how they are affecting change together, rather than improving specific components in isolation. The programme focuses on four countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Vietnam.

The expert will co-lead Cluster of Activities 3: ‘upscaling and anchoring of food system transformations’. This cluster aims to identify and better understand drivers and innovations enabling food system transformations for healthier diets at scale, building on knowledge gains from food system analysis and small-scale innovations. Research will focus on influencing food systems’ performance at two levels. First, supporting actors in agri-food value chains in scaling up innovations for healthier foods and improving the nutritional quality and safety of already distributed foods. Second, supporting public policy and investment decisions to enable food system transformations. The senior expert will engage in grant allocation, acquisition of additional funds, conceptual innovation and communication, as well as in additional research and supervision of student research.