Nutrition
Nutritional sensitivity in co-operative development involves intentionally improving the food and nutritional security of the co-operative members, their families, and the consumers who are impacted through their produce. This includes specific consideration of the selection of crops, post-harvesting processes and processing.
Nutritionally-sensitive co-operative development could include development projects supporting the following type of initiatives:
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Update: This learning theme is still being explored. Click here to become involved.
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Example from the Field - Mongolia
The Global Communities' co-operative development program, Enabling Market Integration through Rural Group Empowerment (EMIRGE), in Mongolia, was faced with an interesting situation. In general, Mongolians eat very few vegetables, and those that are eaten are primarily potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Given the country's harsh climate, these are vegetables that are able to be easily grown and stored. Two key problems were: 1) the lack of diversity in vegetable production; and 2) the lack of knowledge by Mongolians on how to prepare less common vegetables. In response to the first problem, EMIRGE's greenhouse programs are designed to reduce seasonal food shortages and income fluctuations of rural farmers and extend the ability of rural communities to have access to nutrient-dense foods longer in the lean months of winter--a critical element in impacting nutrient deficiencies in the Mongolian diet. To address the second challenge, the EMIRGE program has offered activities and workshops on how to increase the variety of food in diets, including cooking shows.
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In Rwanda, a Global Communities implemented program, Ejo Heza, has a key component of health and nutrition. Ejo Heza has trained 80,000 Rwandans on health and nutrition over the last five years (5,000 over the target of 75,000). Training topics include: nutrition of pregnant and lactating mothers; breastfeeding; complementary feeding; first 1,000 days of a child's life; best hygiene practice; and cooking demonstrations. Ejo Heza's cooking demonstrations are conducted at the community level. Neighbors are invited to attend and learn together; each person brings a different food and they cook it together. A common challenge of promoting the production of nutritious vegetables is that they are often also of higher value; therefore, farmers may be growing these vegetables, but they are all being sold in the market and none are consumed at the household level. To address this, Ejo Heza introduced kitchen gardens, where vegetables are grown only for consumption--not to be sold.
According to Ejo Heza's Health and Nutrition Specialist, challenges remain. The Nutrition Specialist explained that when she goes into the community and speaks with the population, there is a clear increase in knowledge on health and nutrition, but this does not always translate into an increase in uptake. It is not in Ejo Heza's mandate to ensure that the knowledge and information from the trainings is being put into practice, and that nutrition levels are actually improving. |