IPS Senior Researchers Participate at Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia 2024 Conference

December 3-5, 2024

The 2024 edition of “Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the dots across systems” (D4N 2024), the flagship nutrition conference by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and other global and regional co-hosts took place at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo from December 3-5.

Delivering opening remarks at the Conference, IPS Executive Director Dr Dushni Weerakoon touched on how various external shocks in the South Asian region had experienced over the past few years, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, had adversely affected food and nutrition security in these countries.

IPS Director of Research Dr Nisha Arunatilake and IPS Research Economist Sunimalee Madurawala also participated in D4N 2024, with Dr Arunatilake co-chairing Thematic Session 2a: Methods and metrics to improve nutrition through sustainable agriculture along with IFPRI Associate Research Fellow Moogdho Mahzab, on Day 1 of the conference.

On the same day, Ms Madurawala participated at Thematic Session 2b: Natural and built food environments delivering a rapid-fire presentation titled “From Policy to Practice: Examining Industry Influence on Public Health Policies for Healthier Food Environments in Sri Lanka.”

Dr Arunatilake also conducted an oral presentation titled “Influence of Disasters on the Urban Poor’s Food Environments and Security,” on Day 3 of the conference.

All three days of the conference saw parallel thematic sessions made up of oral presentations and shorter, rapid-fire presentations, chaired by various experts and stakeholders from diverse fields, as well as parallel learning labs afterwards and a plenary session at the end of each day.

D4N 2024’s 12 thematic areas aligned with the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) conceptual framework of food systems for diets and nutrition. This regional conference on implementation research aimed to evaluate the interconnectedness between nutrition and agricultural production systems, market dynamics, dietary habits, gender dynamics, education, water and sanitation, and climate change, among other objectives.

Experts, policymakers, researchers, stakeholders, journalists, academics and university students from various sectors came together to explore the multifaceted linkages between nutrition and its determinants.