On February 20, 2015, a short presentation on the relationship between children’s diet diversity, household production diversity and market access was delivered by Kalle Hirvonen at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) from ESSP. In total, 51 people from a wide range of alliances attended, indicating a particular interest in this important topic for Ethiopia.
The key finding of the research showed that by providing greater access to markets, and extending children’s diets through this channel, might be better than developing a more diverse diet through household production. What was also noted was the importance surrounding education on diet diversity and nutrition.
The lively participation of the audience bore witness to the huge value this research has in potentially helping organizations focus their work in food security, and so lessen the impact of poverty. At the end of the presentation, some strategic considerations were posed by Kalle and the audience too – considerations of both short-term and long-term consequence, including the introduction of technology to increase production; school feeding programs; different strategies for different terrains; seasonality influences.
This presentation was organized by ESSP with support from EDRI. ESSP is a collaborative program undertaken by IFPRI and EDRI, whose objective is to help improve the policy-making decision process in Ethiopia.
