NUTRIFOOD: Addressing the double burden of malnutrition in Benin

Start date: 14 February 2020
End date: 13 February 2023

Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) is widespread in low-income countries and prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where 83% of children aged 2 to 5 years exhibit VAD. This results in malnutrition, 500,000 cases of blindness, and 1.25 million deaths annually. The region has a high prevalence of both undernutrition and of overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases in the same population: the scourge known as the “double burden” of malnutrition.

It’s a challenging problem, to be sure, but through the new NUTRIFOOD project, local institutions can take the first step toward reversing this situation by identifying new nutrient-dense food and vegetable varieties as well as food processing methods that retain and enhance nutrients. Promoting nutrition through education and gardening in schools and communities will put this new knowledge into practice.

Representatives from the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), school directors, school canteen managers, and mayors from participating communities gathered on 18 February 2021 at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (ITTA) in Cotonou, Benin to launch NUTRIFOOD.

“NUTRIFOOD combines the strength of UK Research and Innovation and the World Vegetable Center to improve the nutritional quality of diets in West Africa,” said Dr. Victor Afari-Sefa, Regional Director, World Vegetable Center, West and Central Africa – Coastal and Humid Regions. “NUTRIFOOD will identify new nutritionally enhanced varieties of tomato, amaranth, cassava and yam and incorporate these fruits and vegetables and their derived products into local food systems.”

School gardens are one of the tools NUTRIFOOD will use to break the cycle of malnutrition plaguing many schoolchildren in Benin. For several decades, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development has encouraged schools to create medium-sized gardens that could be managed by students, teachers and parents to produce nutritious vegetables and fruits, and sometimes even allow for raising small animals such as chickens and rabbits.

The NUTRIFOOD team will work with school administrators, parents and students to establish gardens in ten pilot schools in Mono, Atlantique and Ouémé. In addition to producing food, the gardens will be used as teaching platforms to approach the natural sciences, economics, business and many other school subjects.

At the opening of the NUTRIFOOD launch ceremony, the WFP Deputy Director praised the quality of the cooperation between the World Food Programme and World Vegetable Center before wishing the NUTRIFOOD project every success. The NUTRIFOOD team then gave presentations outlining the project approach and answered questions to clarify activities and responsibilities.

The mayors of the municipalities that will participate in NUTRIFOOD, as well as Benin’s Director of Primary Education, school directors, and managers of school canteens welcomed the NUTRIFOOD initiative and are committed to establish thriving school gardens where their students can nourish their minds and bodies.