1082. Challenges with Food System Transformation Intervention Assessments

Food systems have a profound impact on our dietary choices. With a view to ensuring consumers access to nutritious food, more than 100 countries expressed their commitment to the transformation of their food systems at the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021. However, the process of food system transformation is complex and unpredictable. The reason for this is that, as mentioned in a recent blog, the food system involves multiple layers of stakeholders from production to distribution and consumption, and the relationships between them are extremely complex.

The paper, published in The Journal of Nutrition, identified methodological challenges in assessing food system intervention projects in Asia and Africa with the goal of improving access to nutritious food, and made recommendations for improvement.

First, the paper noted a lack of evidence assessing whether interventions in food systems had the desired impact as a methodological challenge. The food system is dynamic and intertwined, and the impact of interventions can ripple through different sectors. When designing your research, you need to follow the Theories of Change and establish a solid hypothesis between intervention and impact.

At the same time, due to the interconnectedness of food systems, it is difficult to distinguish between external factors and the outcomes and effects of interventions. In traditional intervention trials, participants are randomly assigned and compared to a control group to determine the effectiveness of an intervention, but the fact that different variables cannot be controlled under the food system means that it is more difficult to accurately measure the effect of food system transformation interventions than without the intervention.

Data collection also has hurdles. Interventions generally involve the participation of private sector companies, but there are problems such as adequate data not being recorded timely and challenges with data propriety. In addition, there are many cases where the movement of goods along the food system cannot be traced.

Finally, if you take out one effect, it does not reflect all the effects of the intervention. Focusing only on nutritional benefits and neglecting other factors, such as food availability and consumer behavior, fails to capture the essence of the complexity of food systems and results in an incomplete effect analysis.

Based on the above, the paper uses the "Theories of Change" to design flexible intervention and evaluation methods using multiple methods, assuming various outcomes including trade-offs, synergies, and unintended consequences of interventions in rigorous impact assessment of food system interventions. It emphasizes the importance of describing and explaining such processes in a transparent and comprehensive manner.

Reference
Lynnette M Neufeld, et al.  Food Systems Interventions for Nutrition: Lessons from 6 Program Evaluations in Africa and South Asia, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 154, Issue 6, 2024, Pages 1727-1738, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.04.005

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program