How Small and Medium Enterprises can address malnutrition in Low- & Middle-Income Countries

7 May 2019, Washington, DC – One third of the world’s population is malnourished – with the greatest burden faced by low- and middle-income countries. To meet this fundamental challenge in the food system, FAO North America and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) USA co-hosted a roundtable discussion on the role and actions of the private sector, including Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

“It is estimated that SMEs represent more than 95% of registered firms worldwide,” said Florence Tartanac, Group Leader of the Market Linkages and Value Chain Group, FAO. “The private sector and SMEs play a key role in the transformation of food systems and can help improve diets and nutrition by bringing a variety of healthy foods to the markets, and through equitable job creation and income distribution,” Tartanac added. FAO works with SMEs through an nutrition-sensitive value chain approach, strengthening Inclusive Business Models, enabling women to benefit more equally from agrifood value chains, reducing food losses, capacity building and developing cold chains in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“GAIN will work on the commercialization of biofortified crops, nutritious food financing, and innovations which might not yet be on our radar,” emphasized Daniel Alberts, Director of Supply Chains for Nutritious Foods, GAIN. Djeinam Toure, GAIN, underlined the important role SMEs can play by giving an example from East Africa: “Pasteurizing milk and selling it through vending machines can provide a convenient, desirable, affordable, nutritious and safe product.” GAIN’s Teale Yalch also highlighted the Marketplace for Nutritious Foods as an innovation accelerator, which works to scale-up over 60 companies.

“Packaging can make a big difference in post-harvest losses and for food safety. Infrastructure investments only account for 50% of what has to be done, as optimizing business processes is just as important,” underlined Richard Tracy from the Global Cold Chain Alliance.

“The need to strengthen SMEs goes beyond agriculture, as we have to look at SMEs across the whole food system. Substantial investments, including from the private sector itself, are required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” Devin Chesney, Director of Strategic Development, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) emphasized.

The roundtable participants concluded that SMEs are indeed key actors to transform our food systems for healthy diets, and that the constraints they face in their enabling environment need to be addressed.

Read more on how FAO and GAIN work together to develop new approaches and mechanisms to promote market-based solutions that leverage SMEs as a key tool for improved nutrition, and to make urban food systems more nutrition sensitive in this press release.  

Publication: FAO/GAIN Leveraging Small and Medium Enterprises to improve nutrition: http://www.fao.org/3/CA2880EN/ca2880en.pdf