Food Systems and Nutrition Evidence Gap Map
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Overview
In the last few years, significant efforts have been made to improve food systems to facilitate better food security and nutrition outcomes. As a result, there is a vast amount of evidence on what works, but navigating the research is complicated, making it difficult for decision-makers to use the evidence. 3ie, with support from Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions, was commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to develop an EGM. This evidence gap map report addresses this challenge by providing an overview of the literature on food systems interventions. It reports on evidence from all key areas and intervention types within the food system and also identifies potential primary and synthesis evidence gaps.
Highlights
- This is 3ie’s largest EGM, including over 2,000 studies. It represents a rich body of evidence in an accessible format.
- Several widely implemented interventions are not well researched, allowing for the potential for negative consequences and the inefficient use of funds.
- Women are traditionally major actors within food systems; however, we identified relatively few studies that examined interventions supporting women’s decision-making or measured outcomes regarding women’s empowerment.
- Larger interventions, which impact more people, are less commonly studied. The vast majority of evaluations took place at the local and subnational level, resulting in less evidence on national and transnational interventions.
- There is a strong focus on randomised trials. Mixed-methods approaches and those considering cost evidence are severely underrepresented in the literature.
Original map publication date: 15 January 2021
Current map date of publication: 15 December 2021
Online map citation:
Moore, N, Lane, C, Storhaug, I, Franich, A, Rolker, H, Furgeson, J, Sparling, T and Snilstveit, B. 2021. The effects of food systems interventions on food security and nutrition outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, 3ie Evidence Gap Map Report 16. New Delhi: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). Available at: https://doi.org/10.23846/EGM016
Related 3ie publications
- EGM in brief (updated)
- EGM report: The effects of food systems interventions on food security and nutrition outcomes in low- and middle-income countries
- EGM brief: The effects of food systems interventions on food security and nutrition outcomes in low- and middle- income countries
- Blog: New research on food systems and nutrition still neglects priority topics
- Blog: How do food system interventions affect food security and nutrition? We're mapping the evidence
- Blog: This new evidence gap map shows what we know – and what we don't know – about food systems interventions
