Turning the tide towards better nutrition in the Pacific

From
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Published on
29.09.25
Impact Area
Nutrition, health & food security

For many Pacific countries, access to locally available, diverse, and nutritious foods remains an uphill battle. With rising sea levels and frequent cyclones on one hand and transport and infrastructure limitations on the other, nations like Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are grappling with malnutrition. The persistent burden of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition underscores the need for rural communities to consume diverse and healthy diets even as subsistence farming remains a central source of staple crops.

Towards informed food choices

In 2020, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, along with World Vision and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), worked with partners in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to address the joint challenges of poor nutrition and low rural incomes through the Melanesian Rural Market and Innovation-Driven Development (MERMAID) Programme.

The four-year collaborative work combined nutrition and market systems research and participatory approaches to leverage traditional and local knowledge and experiences. Through this approach, the programme identified key community-based strategies that support and promote healthy diets and enhanced livelihoods. At its core, MERMAID pushed for enhanced capacity sharing among smallholder farming households to produce and consume a variety of local nutritious crops while enabling them to earn incomes to purchase foods that contribute to overall dietary diversity.

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