Access
Reliable food supply for households at risk.
Focus — Health & Community Well-Being — Nutrition and food security
NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve what people eat and whether it is enough for the households and children affected.
Why this area
NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY
IN CONTEXT.
Hunger and poor nutrition are different problems with overlapping answers. Ideas qualify when they name which one they address and for whom.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Diet quality
Diversity, micronutrients, and what people will eat.
Maternal & child nutrition
The first years, where the stakes are highest.
Seasonality
Getting through the lean months.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where what people eat and whether it is enough fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — dietary diversity, growth measures, months of adequate food, or cost.
- Explains what the households and children affected do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of what people eat and whether it is enough in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier feeding and supplementation programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the households and children affected, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — households, children, or meals over a defined period.
- A stated measure of success — dietary diversity, growth measures, months of adequate food, or cost.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves health, growth, and household stability for the households and children affected.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named clinic, school, producer group, or public programme able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of what people eat and whether it is enough in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the households and children affected or the clinic, school, producer group, or public programme.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about nutrition and food security with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about what people eat and whether it is enough that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.