Tackling Complexity: The Challenges and Benefits of a Gender-Transformative Approach to Improving Diets in Northern Ghana

Fall 2024 Harry ’51 and Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that to get meaningful change in dietary practice and women’s agency interventions must tackle ingrained social norms and gender roles. This seminar will describe an on-going integrated gender-transformative agriculture-nutrition-finance-marketing project in Northern Ghana, whose acronym is GROWING, that is half-way through its 4.7 year implementation period and is focused on improving the nutritional and financial security of women, youth, and young children in 6 districts of Northern Ghana. The critical role of formative research in designing the intervention will be highlighted, along with discussing the emerging benefits and challenges, considering the desire to ultimately scale the intervention. Results from monitoring data will show progress being made. The seminar will also highlight contributions made by Cornell MPS students supported by the Polson Institute to the implementation design.

About the speakers

Jan W. Low is an adjunct professor in Cornell Global Development and a principal scientist with the International Potato Center (CIP), based in Nairobi, Kenya. During the past decade, she managed the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) research project and co-led the Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI). The SPHI was a multi-partner, multi-donor initiative that reached 6.8 million African households in 15 target countries with improved varieties of sweetpotato, promoting their diversified use. Dr. Low obtained her doctorate in agricultural economics at Cornell University, minoring in nutrition. Having worked over 25 years in sub-Saharan Africa, she has focused with her team on developing and promoting biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato to combat vitamin A deficiency. In 2016, along with two CIP sweetpotato breeders (Maria Andrade and Robert Mwanga) and Howarth Bouis of HarvestPlus, Dr. Low was awarded the World Food Prize for her work on biofortification.

Naveen Sridhar Kottayil, MPS '24 is a Research Support Specialist at the Tata-Cornell Institute at Cornell University. Previously, he worked as a Program Officer TCI based in New Delhi. He holds a Master's degree from Cornell in Global Development and a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from St. Philomena’s College, Mysore. As part of his Master's dissertation, he focused on "Agricultural Trade Situation of India after W.T.O." Naveen’s primary interests lie in creating forward and backward linkages for farmers and producers in order to formulate sustainable agriculture solutions and improve the incomes of Indian farmers. At TCI, he was part of the program team and was responsible for monitoring field level implementation of activities, with a special focus on activities around the promotion of small ruminants, farmer producer organizations (FPOs) and reducing seasonal food deficits at the household level.

About the seminar series

The Harry ’51 & Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series showcases innovative approaches to development with experts from around the globe. Each year, the series attracts online registrants from over 45 countries and more than 350 organizations. 

Seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:20-1:10 p.m. eastern time during the semester in 175 Warren Hall. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend in-person or via Zoom.

The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.