News

The African Economic Research Consortium recently hosted a five-day the Gender and Nutrition Mainstreaming, and Demand Analysis workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event which took place on Monday, October 2, 2023, was officially presided over by Prof. Dominique Njinkeu, AERC Interim Executive Director.

The objective of the workshop was to equip the researchers with principles of engendering their research and to equip them with nutrition metrics, and tools for demand and policy simulation analysis under the Policy Analysis for Sustainable and Healthy Foods in African Retail Markets (PASHFARM) project. The workshop was attended by 28 researchers from 12 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries representing 20 research teams under this project.

The workshop facilitators included Dr. Lanoi Maloiy, the PASHFARM Gender Expert; Dr. Maureen Cheserek, the PASHFARM Nutrition Expert; Prof. Elaine Unterhalter, the Nordic Consulting Group; and Prof. Ellen McCullough, University of Georgia.

Using the Turner et al (2018) food environment framework, the project endeavors to rigorously research on retail markets for nutritious foods for informed policy making, program design, and healthy nutrition outcomes in SSA. One of the key questions is how to incentivize retail markets to offer accessible and affordable nutritious foods to low-income consumers, thus increasing consumption.