The Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA), launched in Nairobi in August 2016 during the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI), was created in order to help African governments accelerate the implementation of their nutrition policies. In line with this, the first IFNA Partners Meeting was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 18-19, 2017. This event provided an opportunity to share lessons and good practices as well as discuss the challenges based on a common understanding of IFNA's goals among partners, which include African governments, development partners, international organisations, research institutions, funding agencies, civil society organisations, and private corporations.

The opening remarks were given by several prominent speakers, including H. E. Mr. Ato Tesfaye Mengiste, State Minister for Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; H.E. Mr. Shinichi Saida, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ethiopia and the African Union; and Ms. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Founder of the Princess of Africa Foundation. On behalf of the host country, Minister Mengiste stressed the urgency of implementing nutrition-sensitive approaches, including climate-smart agriculture and natural resource management, in improving food and nutrition security in African countries whose economies are heavily reliant on smallholder farming systems. Ms. Chaka Chaka, referring to herself as a mother of four children, appealed to the audience on the need to invest in children’s nutrition as an investment in future generations.

On the second day of the event, Dr. Masa Iwanaga, JIRCAS President, gave a brief presentation on JIRCAS’s research programs and activities related to improving food security, production, and nutrition in Africa. He was the first presenter among the invited partners. Other partners, including the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and other bilateral/international research institutions and NGOs, also presented their activities in relation to IFNA principles.

During the poster session, Dr. Jun Furuya, JIRCAS Project Leader, presented to an interested audience the simulated impacts of climate change on global food supply-demand and on nutritional status in developing regions under various climate change scenarios. The simulation results are among the research outputs of JIRCAS Information Analysis Program .