Last week I spent from Monday to Thursday at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Here I met with my supervisor who is the leader of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) Flagship Food Systems for Healthier Diets research programme. The CGIAR Research Program on A4NH “helps realize the potential of agricultural development to deliver gender-equitable health and nutritional benefits to the poor. It supports agricultural practices, interventions, and policies that ensure health and nutrition benefits, while reducing health risks” http://a4nh.cgiar.org/ . Throughout the week we met with a couple of her colleagues and had a number of meetings where we discussed how best to achieve my overall objectives, especially regarding what methodologies would be most suitable, considering my time frame.
As the week went on, a couple of obstacles emerged, which would have delayed the project and the destination for research switched from Ethiopia to Hanoi, Vietnam. Both of these are focus countries for A4NH so after a couple of emails and phone calls, it was all pulled together pretty quickly. I will now be based in Hanoi with CIAT and should be there by the end of the month all going to plan. My main research will involve carrying out key informant interviews with private sector actors in the food system. These interviews will help me to understand their sustainability narratives, as well as opportunities and constraints around food systems. I’m really looking forward to starting this! For now, I will continue with my literature review around this very interesting topic!
Clare