A Global Food Security Symposium

FSP’s downstream and upstream food system transformation team organized symposium: "Changing food systems and nutrition: Do we have the concepts and data to understand, track, and anticipate the links?"

By David Tschirley


ImageSymposiumGFSFSP’s downstream and upstream food system transformation team organized a special symposium at the 3rd Annual Global Food Security Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 3, 2017.  Panelists included David Tschirley (overall organizer), Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, and Milu Muyanga from MSU, Anna Herforth from Tufts University, Jessica Fanzo from Johns Hopkins University, and Victor Ajieroh from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as discussant.

Entitled “Changing food systems and nutrition: do we have the concepts and data to understand, track, and anticipate the links?”, the symposium brought together a diverse range of development specialists from the nutrition, economics, and biological fields to discuss research and data generation priorities to allow governments and donors to better confront the diet- and nutrition challenges posed by Africa’s rapidly changing food systems.  

The presentations can be found at the links below:

“Big Data Efforts: Food Affordability and Diet Quality,” Anna Herforth with Jennifer Coates

“Changing Food Systems and Nutrition: Do We Have the Concepts and Data to Understand, Track, and Anticipate the Links?”, David Tschirley

“The Rise of Medium-Scale Farms in Africa: Causes and Consequences of Changing Farm Size Distributions,” Milu Muyanga, T. S. Jayne, Felix Kwame Yeboah, Antony Chapoto, Nicholas Sitko

“The Hidden Revolution in the Midstream of Africa’s Food Systems - Links to Food Safety and Nutrition,” Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, Thomas Reardon and Dave Tschirley

“Drivers & Patterns of Changing Diets & Nutritional Status in sub-Saharan Africa,” Jessica Fanzo


Program

  • 8:30-10:00
    Introduction (5 min)
    Four presentations (15 min + 5 min questions of clarification)
  • 10:00-10:15  
    Coffee break
  • 10:15-11:45  
    Final presentation (15 min + 5 min) Discussant (15 min) Audience engagement (50 min) Wrap-up (10 min)

Panelists

Dr. Victor Ajieroh, Senior Nutrition Advisor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nigeria (Discussant)
Dr. David Tschirley, Professor, International Development, Dept. of Agricultural, Food, &  Resource Economics, MSU, and Co-Director, Food Security Group
Dr. Anna Herforth, Independent consultant in Global nutrition and food security and Project Director, IANDA
Dr. S. Liverpool-Tasie, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Agricultural, Food, & Resource Economics, MSU
Dr. Milu Muyanga, Asst. Professor, International Development, Dept. of Agricultural, Food, & Resource Economics, MSU
Dr. Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Ag Policy and Ethics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

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