MODELLING WITH COST OF THE DIET AND INFORMING FILL THE NUTRIENT GAP (FNG) ANALYSIS

Many households cannot afford to meet the nutrient needs of all its members, which has been shown by Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) analyses and Cost of the Diet (CotD) studies in numerous different countries across the world. In particular household members with high nutrient needs relative to their energy needs such as children aged 6-23 months, pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and adolescent girls, are often the most expensive household members and/or require specific foods in addition to those consumed by the rest of the family so it is especially difficult to meet their nutrient needs. In order to address this issue solutions are required that reduce the cost of nutritious foods, make nutritious foods more available (e.g. in cases where certain foods do not exist or the availability of foods meeting nutrient needs are highly seasonal), and/or increase purchasing power. Using the Cost of the Diet tool different solutions to improve affordability can be modelled to help inform the FNG analysis on possible feasible solutions within the specific context and guide the formulation of sector specific recommendations. Throughout the FNG process stakeholders from agriculture, food systems, health, social protection, education and other sectors are engaged to provide their input and interpretation into the analysis. One key area in which stakeholders provide input is the identification of appropriate interventions to be modelled. For example, stakeholders working in agriculture might be interested to see the potential impact of home-gardening interventions such as vegetable production; bio-fortification of crops; or large scale agricultural interventions aimed at reducing the overall cost of certain foods or making certain foods more available. Those involved in social protection might be interested in modelling cash transfers or vouchers for nutritious foods (e.g. leafy greens or animal source foods) or fortified Specialised Nutritious Foods (SNFs). Stakeholders within the health sector might be interested in seeing the impact of interventions such as the provision of iron folic acid tablets for PLWs; micronutrient powders or fortified complementary foods for children under 2; or staple food fortification. These interventions can be targeted at specific individuals of interest in the household, such as a child under 2, a PLW and an adolescent girl, or to the household as whole. Interventions aimed at specific target groups can also be combined to form a potenti