This partnership will continue funding for ACIAR to deliver locally-led research across the Indo-Pacific in the links between human and environmental health and food security, to inform public health interventions.
Activities will be implemented in two phases over three to five years – the first phase will look to conduct a scoping review and the second phase of existing small research projects and will inform the second phase comprising of three full scale projects. The primary beneficiaries of ACIAR investment and the target of the investment’s impact pathways are smallholder farmers, fishers and foresters in partner countries, as well as their households and communities. Smallholder farmers make critical contributions to global food security, and economic and political stability.
This investment is expected to improve advice to partner governments, data systems, and capabilities to improve evidence-based decision-making by both agricultural and public health decision-makers, leading to more effective and proactive prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases. The research process will include elements of participatory action research with farmers and rural communities to build their perspectives directly into advice and data systems, and to build their capacity to influence policies and programs in an ongoing way. This vertical integration (from farmers to national governments) as well as horizontal alignment and cooperation (between agricultural and health decision-makers) will be enabled by multistakeholder dialogues and other co-development and knowledge-sharing processes.
