Nutrition in Mountain Agro-Ecosystems (NMA)

Overview

Nutrition continues to be a fundamental challenge for health, economy, and development. In 2016, the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025). Action is needed in mountainous regions where a disproportionately high number of the world’s chronically malnourished live. 

The Nutrition in Mountain Agro-ecosystems project (NMA) belongs to SDC’s Global Program Food Security (GPFS), and operates across five mountain regions: the Andes, East-African Highlands, the Himalayas, Hindukush, and Pamir-Tian Shan. NMA replicates and scales up nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices in mountain agro-ecosystems to promote improved nutrition and resilience. It is driven by a network of Rural Service Providers striving to achieve broad impacts at local, national, and global levels.

The  second phase of NMA focuses on scaling-up the capacities of Rural Service Providers (RSPs) and the Mountain Agriculture Action Network (MAAN) established in phase one. The project has expanded into 4 more countries  across its five identified mountain regions and continues to facilitate cross-country learning, replicating/scaling up nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions, and strengthening food consumption components through awareness raising. Result then feed into national and global  policy work. With the introduction of the new competitive scheme of SUNSAIs (Scaling-up nutrition sensitive agriculture- Initiatives), phase II addresses the main issues highlighted by the evaluation of phase 1. SUNSAIs aim at achieving systemic and lasting change. 

Goal - Impact - Objectives

The goal of NMA is to enable more people in mountain areas to consume more diverse diets with sufficient, safe and nutritious food.

Families living in remote mountain areas are largely dependent on agriculture which is constrained by scarce arable land, poor infrastructure, difficult climatic and topographic conditions. Ecosystems are complex and fragile and placed in a high-risk environment eg. at risk from avalanches, landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.  

NMA builds the capacity of young leaders who design and implement interventions to help stabilize the food system (Micro Interventions) in their own rural communities. Through a digital platform Mountain Agro-ecosystem Action Network (MAAN https://maan.ifoam.bio/), RSPs share their projects and experiences across the continents. NMA also ensures that solutions on local level are made known on national and global levels so they can be replicated and scaled-up and also help create a conducive environment.