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Photo of "Cash Transfer Beneficiary" Ann Mueni, 20, purchasing fruits and vegetables for her household using the Kes 4000 received through mobile money transfer.
Photo Credit: Geoffrey Mwangi/USAID

Improving Diets through Food Systems

Resources to Design, Implement, and Monitor Activities

Photo Credit: Geoffrey Mwangi/USAID

Improving the accessibility and affordability of nutritious and safe diets is critical to reducing the global burden of malnutrition.

Use this web page to explore how we can strengthen food systems to improve diets and locate resources to guide your work. Get to know these resources organized by key components of the food system.

For additional information on food systems, and more details about the resources outlined on this page, read this Food Systems Technical Brief.

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Photo of a group of woman working in field, while they sieve beans.
Photo Credit: Herve Irankunda/USAID Feed the Future

Using food systems to guide our actions and improve diet and nutrition outcomes.

Household actions alone are insufficient to sustainably reduce malnutrition. Well-considered interventions within the food system can enable household-level actions to improve diets and nutrition through women’s empowerment, agricultural production, and income generation.

Using food systems to guide our actions and improve diet and nutrition outcomes.

Household actions alone are insufficient to sustainably reduce malnutrition. Well-considered interventions within the food system can enable household-level actions to improve diets and nutrition through women’s empowerment, agricultural production, and income generation.

Photo Credit: Herve Irankunda/USAID Feed the Future
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 RFS Framework USAID Advancing Nutrition
RFS Framework USAID Advancing Nutrition

The food system comprises the interrelated parts of a food’s journey from farm to table. To understand how best to improve diet quality and address malnutrition, we need to consider the system as a whole: the actors, their interrelationships and the incentives that affect them.

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The RFS Food Systems Conceptual Framework

This document walks through each component of the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security's (RFS) conceptual framework so that users can better understand the components of a food system and how to apply the framework to program design.

Photo of a mother working in her garden as her two young children help her.

How to Use the Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Food Systems Conceptual Framework

This interactive presentation (Prezi) will stimulate thinking and conversations around the RFS Conceptual Framework, encourage independent and group exploration, and support “systems thinking.”

How to take action in the food system

USAID Advancing Nutrition developed a set of resources and tools to help USAID and partners put a food systems approach into action. These resources and tools are organized by key components of the food system. Resources to measure progress towards improved diets are included under development outcomes because diets are the primary outcome of interest in food systems programming.

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Photo of a man taking strawberries out of his vehicle and getting them ready to sell at a outdoor market.
Photo Credit: Bobby Neptune for USAID

Food System: Supply and Demand

Food System: Supply and demand includes the components of food supply, food environment, and food and water utilization. It represents production through consumption and is the core of the framework.

Food System: Supply and Demand

Food System: Supply and demand includes the components of food supply, food environment, and food and water utilization. It represents production through consumption and is the core of the framework.

Photo Credit: Bobby Neptune for USAID

Food Supply

The food supply encompasses how food moves from production to consumption, including storage, distribution, processing, and packaging. Decisions made along the supply chain influence the types of available and accessible food, and the way they are produced and consumed.

Operational Guide Needs Assessment and Design Methodology to Guide Large-Scale Food Fortification and Broader Programming to Improve Diets

This operational overview describes the steps to identify and use existing data to conduct an assessment that informs the design or redesign of large-scale food fortification (LSFF) programs as well as broader programming to improve diets and is first part of the LSFF programs tools package. 

This resource also supports Food Environment.

Methods Guide: Needs Assessment and Design Methodology to Guide Large-Scale Food Fortification and Broader Programming to Improve Diets (forthcoming).

This is the second part of the LSFF programs tools package and it provides detailed instructions on how to conduct the analyses for the needs assessment and design.

This resource also supports Food Environment.

Case Studies: Nigeria and Zambia Large-Scale Food Fortification Needs Assessment and Design Results (forthcoming)

This third part of the LSFF programs tools package includes examples of results of the needs assessment and design analyses and their interpretation and application for LSFF decision-making. The primary audience includes people seeking to assess and design or possibly re-design an LSFF program, such as USAID Mission staff overseeing the Feed the Future initiative and USAID partners, including Feed the Future implementing partners, national offices/bureaus of statistics, universities, and national institutes and centers. 

This resource also supports Food Environment.

Group photo of NSA facilitators.

Designing Effective Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Activities

This guide provides all the materials needed (facilitator’s guide, two slide decks, all workshop handouts) to facilitate nutrition-sensitive agriculture design workshops. The design guide provides instructions for facilitators to conduct a three-day workshop that helps activity teams establish contextually appropriate, nutrition-sensitive agriculture outcomes, interventions, and indicators.

This resource also supports Food Environment and Food and Water Utilization.

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Technical Brief: Food Processing to Improve Diets

This technical brief helps USAID and its implementing partners design and implement food processing activities for improved diets and nutrition. The brief describes how food processing can improve diets, how it fits within USAID’s multi-sectoral food security and nutrition strategies, and what to consider when implementing food processing activities to improve diets and nutrition. 

This resource also supports Food Environment.

Photo of a factory plant supervisor looking at a completed food product on the work floor.

Landscape Assessment: Food Processing in Feed the Future Investments

This landscape assessment helps USAID to better understand how food processing has been included in Feed the Future programming. It provides recommendations for improving food processing programming to increase year-round access to and consumption of foods that form part of a safe, nutritious diet. 

This resource also relates to Investment Levers.

Food Environment

The food environment is where consumers directly procure food. We are working to better understand the characteristics of the food environment to help consumers make good food choices.

Photo of a vegetable stand at an outdoor market, with various veggies.

Methods, Tools, and Metrics for Evaluating Market Food Environments in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This report presents findings from a landscape assessment, a ranking exercise, and a survey that led to a priority list of methods, tools, and metrics for evaluating informal and formal market food environments in low- and middle-income countries.

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Food environment monitoring and evaluation guidance and tools (forthcoming)

This package helps global development partners working in low- and middle-income countries collect data that assesses the food environment.  It includes documentation of a multi-year pilot study in Liberia, Honduras, Nigeria, and Timor-Leste that evaluated seven food environment assessments for their feasibility and acceptability.

Cover photo: closeup of a person's hands holding berries. In the background is a basket of berries. Caption: "Cover photo: Cherries for fruit paste at a woman-owned food processing company in Haiti. Photo by Patrick Adams/RTI International.

Generating Demand for Healthy Diets: Social Marketing Guide

This guide supports nutrition program planners by defining, describing, and explaining the process of developing high-quality programs to market healthy diets. The guide enables teams to make informed marketing decisions, create strong marketing campaigns, and diagnose and solve marketing challenges.

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Suitability of Data-Collection Methods, Tools, and Metrics for Evaluating Market Food Environments in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This open access article shares the findings from a study that evaluated the suitability of data-collection assessments (including methods, tools, and metrics) for multiple dimensions of the external and personal domains of market food environments in informal and formal markets in low- and middle-income countries.

Food and Water Utilization

Food and water utilization is the ability of individuals to make use of the food and water they acquire.

Cover photo: three women, sitting in an open air hut, preparing food.

Social and Behavior Change Resources for Women's Healthy Diets: 5 Gaps and Recommendations

This brief outlines gaps and recommendations in SBC resources for women's healthy diets. It first identifies quality SBC tools and resources through expert consultations and document reviews, and discusses which existing resources programs can adapt and use immediately.

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Photo of a woman setting up a vegetable stand, while another woman is sitting at the stand. Both women are smiling.
Photo Credit: HERE

Drivers

Drivers represent external forces that affect and may be affected by the food system in both positive and negative ways. They affect the ability of the food system to sustainably deliver safe, nutritious diets.

Drivers

Drivers represent external forces that affect and may be affected by the food system in both positive and negative ways. They affect the ability of the food system to sustainably deliver safe, nutritious diets.

Photo Credit: HERE
Thumbnail of the report, with an image of a woman holding a plant in a field.

Engaging Youth in Food Systems

This concept note describes evidence and opportunities for programmatic approaches to engage young people (between 10 to 29 years of age) in food systems activities for improved diet and nutrition outcomes.

Photo: a woman in the foregrournd of  a market smiles as she holds a large bowl of food.

Working within the Food System: Gender Considerations for Achieving Improved Diets

This technical brief suggests how to take evidence-based actions that consider gender when designing and implementing approaches to improve diets through the food system. It offers ideas across the food system for promoting gender equality while improving diets.

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Working Within the Food System: Agriculture-to-Nutrition Pathways for Achieving Improved Diets and Nutrition (Forthcoming)

The brief provides guidance on how to take evidence-based actions that consider the Agriculture-to-Nutrition Pathways when designing and implementing approaches to improve diets through food systems programming.

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Illustrative Behaviors to Improve Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Tool

This tool provides a list of evidence-based nutrition-sensitive behaviors to spark ideas and discussion among activity designers and implementers. This list can help to identify nutrition-sensitive behaviors across the food system and food system actors to support an activity’s nutrition outcomes.

This resource also supports Food Supply, Food Environment, Food and Water Utilization, Investment Levers, and Development Outcomes.

Illustration: a mother, father, and young child sit on a mat sharing a meal.

Focusing on Social Norms: A Practical Guide for Nutrition Programmers to Improve Women’s and Children’s Diets

This guide includes tips and tools to improve program outcomes by understanding and responding to social norms at key points in the program cycle. It incorporates background on how to identify norms and monitor and measure normative change as well as helps to create enabling environments for greater and sustained change. It was updated in 2023 after user testing. It is for nutrition program planners and implementers planning norm-responsive activities within nutrition-sensitive or nutrition-specific programming.

This resource also supports Food and Water Utilization.

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Woman sitting in front of her bok choy harvest.
Photo Credit: Solina Kong/Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II

Investment Levers

Investment levers represent specific investments that affect both the food system and development outcomes. They are areas in which USAID and its partners can take action to affect food systems and development actions and catalyze change within food systems.

Investment Levers

Investment levers represent specific investments that affect both the food system and development outcomes. They are areas in which USAID and its partners can take action to affect food systems and development actions and catalyze change within food systems.

Photo Credit: Solina Kong/Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II
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Food Systems and Nutrition E-Consultation Report

This report describes key findings and takeaways from a USAID e-consultation held in November 2019 with support from USAID Advancing Nutrition and Agrilinks. The e-consultation consisted of a webinar to share findings from an evidence review by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition at Tufts University.

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Photo of Dr. Rachel Cann, a maize breeder at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement in Ghana, continues her research with her baby on her back, combining childcare with the study of global nutrition.
Photo Credit: Benjamin A. Danso/AAMUSTED (Formerly UEW-Kumasi)

Development Outcomes

Development outcomes are what we are trying to achieve through food systems actions. The primary outcome of food systems is diets. Secondary outcomes include income, health and nutrition, and environmental sustainability.

Development Outcomes

Development outcomes are what we are trying to achieve through food systems actions. The primary outcome of food systems is diets. Secondary outcomes include income, health and nutrition, and environmental sustainability.

Photo Credit: Benjamin A. Danso/AAMUSTED (Formerly UEW-Kumasi)
Photo of four plates on a table, with healthy and nutritious food on them.

Diet Assessment Decision Tool

This decision tool helps practitioners and decision makers understand dietary patterns and nutrient intake. It supports design, monitoring, and evaluation efforts to improve diets. It provides existing data sources and data collection tools related to five target groups.

This resource also supports Food and Water Utilization.

Will update

Forthcoming Articles on Measurement of Diets (DQQ, children's diets)

Placeholder TEXT - This decision tool helps practitioners and decision makers understand dietary patterns and nutrient intake. It supports design, monitoring, and evaluation efforts to improve diets. It provides existing data sources and data collection tools related to five target groups.

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Photo that has a Food for the Hungry (FH) staff member instructing program participants in cultivation and planting of trees and fodder plants at a tree nursery in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the USAID Development Food Assistance Program.
Photo Credit: Tanya Martineau/Prospect Arts for Food for the Hungry

Where to Start?

When we identify ways to facilitate food systems change that improve outcomes related to quality of diets and nutrition, our programs are more likely to have sustained impact.

Where to Start?

When we identify ways to facilitate food systems change that improve outcomes related to quality of diets and nutrition, our programs are more likely to have sustained impact.

Photo Credit: Tanya Martineau/Prospect Arts for Food for the Hungry

If your program is designed to improve the availability of selected crops, consider assessing the food environment to identify barriers and incentives that will ensure that increased availability will also lead to increased safe and nutritious food purchase and consumption. 

(Link to FE assessment guidance and tools)

If your program seeks to increase consumption of safe and nutritious foods, consider the most impactful demand generation strategies for your population of interest. Move beyond knowledge and awareness.

(Link to Generating Demand for Healthy Diets)

If your program works on large-scale food fortification, consider barriers related to the legal and regulatory environment and opportunities to work with partner governments to encourage fortification activities. 

(Link to these three forthcoming resources)

  • Operational Guide Needs Assessment and Design Methodology to Guide Large-Scale Food Fortification and Broader Programming to Improve Diets
  • Methods Guide: Needs Assessment and Design Methodology to Guide Large-Scale Food Fortification and Broader Programming to Improve Diets
  • Case Studies: Nigeria and Zambia Large-Scale Food Fortification Needs Assessment and Design Results

Programs should be considerate of marginalized groups and how they engage with food systems.

Resources such as "Working within the Food System: Gender Considerations for Achieving Improved Diets" and "Engaging Youth in Food Systems" help guide conversations related to more inclusive (and effective) programming.