1. Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU): Improving Nutrition Outcomes Through Optimized Agricultural Investments

2. ATONU
Focus on how agriculture can deliver positive nutrition outcomes to smallholder farm families through the generation of robust evidence
Project currently focusing on Ethiopia and Tanzania
Target groups: women of child-bearing age and children in first 1,000 days of life, high burden of malnutrition

3. ATONU Approach
Seeks to provide evidence for link between agriculture and nutrition
ATONU seeks to answer the question: “How can agriculture programs be designed to improve nutrition outcomes?”
ATONU works with existing agricultural development projects to:
Identify and design nutrition-sensitive interventions to deliver positive nutrition outcomes
Assess and collect evidence of the impact of interventions
Provides technical assistance to ensure effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive interventions in agriculture programmes

4. Pathways to Improved Nutrition
Food production for household consumption
Income-oriented production for food, health and other non-food items
Empowerment of women as agents
Reduction in real food prices associated with increased agricultural production
Nutrition-Sensitive Agricultural Growth

5. Opportunities for Nutrition-Sensitive
Interventions
Can be anywhere along the agricultural value chain, depending on the design and objectives of project
Primary Production
Post-harvest
Market / Income
Utilization / Consumption
Nutrition Outcomes

6. Pilot Projects
ATONU is working with the African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) Project in Ethiopia and Tanzania
ACGG is being implemented by ILRI
The objective of ACGG is: to improve the production and productivity of chickens kept by smallholder households by introducing improved and tropically adapted genotypes
ATONU is integrating and assessing the impact of a package of nutrition-sensitive interventions (NSIs) into ACGG to provide evidence for agriculture’s potential to deliver positive nutrition outcomes

7. NSIs and Pathways Pathway Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention
Production for household consumption
Introduction of improved and adapted chicken genotypes (ACGG)
Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) on nutrition education and hygiene to increase consumption of eggs and chicken meat
Promotion of home gardens for improved dietary diversity
Income-oriented production for purchase of food
Increased expenditure on nutritious food from household incomes from sale of eggs and chicken
Women empowerment
Changes in women’s time use and status (decision-making) within the household

8. Impact Evaluation Service Providers:
Ethiopia: Harvard Chan School of Public Health and local partner
Tanzania: Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)
Evaluation Questions:
What is the impact of implementing ACGG alone?
What is the added value of implementing NSIs (SBCC, income expenditure on nutritious food, women empowerment and home gardening)
Main Indicators
Dietary diversity in women of reproductive age
Weight and anaemia (Ethiopia) in women of reproductive age
Dietary diversity, anaemia (Ethiopia) (and growth) in young children below 5 years

9. Progress to Date 1. Providing TA to other projects
Two pilot projects, one each in Tanzania and Ethiopia
Elaborated nutrition-sensitive interventions and impact evaluation study designs
Conducted baseline surveys and implementing NSIs
1. Providing TA to other projects
2. Evidence and lessons will be used for policy engagement and advocacy

10. ATONU Products and Technical Assistance
ATONU has developed frameworks that may be used to do the following:
Assess country readiness for nutrition-sensitive agriculture
Assess project/program suitability for integrating nutrition-sensitive interventions
Selection and design of nutrition-sensitive interventions
Impact evaluation of nutrition-sensitive interventions
ATONU is available to provide technical assistance to existing and pipeline projects that would like to deliver positive nutrition outcomes

11. What Will Success Look Like?
Well-nourished rural smallholder farm families
Policy makers and investors incorporate nutrition in the design of agricultural policies and programmes
Validated evidence of nutrition-sensitive interventions
Ag-Nutrition community of practice equipped to design nutrition-sensitive agriculture projects
Agricultural experts working with nutrition and health experts to deliver positive nutrition outcomes

12. Sponsorship by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
ATONU Partners
Sponsorship by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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