Background:

Hunger and malnutrition are still a big challenge in today's world. In 2013, according to the Report on the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013, over 850 million people suffer from hunger, two billion people from micronutrient deficiencies and 1.4 billion are overweight. More than one third of young children suffer from under- or malnutrition with devastating consequences on their health, learning capacities, future earning potential and economic development for whole societies.

Increased efforts are needed and shall address the food system in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, new initiatives shall contribute to find solutions how nutrition can be improved through a dietary diversity based on nutrition sensitive agriculture and processing, education and information, health, water and sanitation measures.

The Project or initiative shall be relevant at global level and have a clear link to policy frameworks at continental or global level. Research projects are not considered.

Objectives:

The project/initiative shall ultimately contribute to achieve Component 3 of GPFS Strategy 2013-2017: Stable access to sufficient nutritious food, Target 3.1: Support improved dietary diversity.

The proposal shall consider the following approaches:

— Promote diverse and nutrition sensitive agriculture and processing for dietary diversity without focussing entirely on (bio-)fortification.

— Provide and implement solutions where nutrition sensitive agriculture, processing and information measures result in improved nutrition, focussing on children and women.

— Promote the dual outcome of an environmentally sound and diverse agricultural produc-tion system: providing nutritious diets and being resilient to climate change.

Finances and Duration:

SDC's contribution will indicatively range between CHF 600'000 – CHF 1 million per year.

The first phase of the project shall last 3 years with a possible extension to a second phase of another 3 years.