Related Projects

MEALS4NCDs

Like many countries in Africa, Ghana is experiencing an increase in obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Current statistics for Ghana indicate that annually, NCDs account for about 43% of all deaths. It has long been recognized that the physical and social environments – in which we live, work, and eat are critical determinants of health. More recently, there has been a greater focus on the food environment (FE) as a key determinant of health. We do know that unhealthy food environment drives unhealthy diets; unhealthy diet is one of four main risk factors for NCDs.  Code-named "MEALS4NCDs Project", this project provides Measurement Evaluation, Accountability and Leadership Support (MEALS) for NCDs prevention in Ghana and beyond.  The project focused on measuring and supporting public sector actions that create healthy food marketing and food provisioning environments for children and adolescents in Ghana, with the aim to prevent obesity nutrition-related NCDs. (Launched in August 2019)

Website:https://www.meals4ncds.org/en/

Global RECAP

The overarching goal of this project is to identify context-relevant priority actions that promote healthy food consumption patterns and facilitate knowledge translation pathways to prevent nutrition-related NCDs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The project will mainly adapt methodological approaches developed by the International Network for Food and Obesity NCDs Research Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS), a global network of public-interest organizations and researchers that monitors, benchmarks, and supports public and private sector actions to increase healthy food environments. More than 35 countries have implemented various INFORMAS approaches, some funded by IDRC. The project will also estimate the economic costs of policy inaction and the political and legal feasibility of potential policy and regulatory interventions for improving food environments.

This project will be funded through the Global Regulatory and Fiscal Capacity Building Program, a multi-agency parallel-funding partnership between IDRC, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the International Development Law Organization, and the World Health Organization. (January 2019 – June 2022) 

Website: https://www.idrc.ca/en/project/developing-package-effective-regulatory-interventions-healthier-food-environments-kenya

FEP-Action

The project addresses Kenya's growing double burden of malnutrition due to unhealthy food environments and a lack of regulatory policies. Despite this, the government has shown commitment to change through collaboration between health and agriculture ministries. The project aims to capitalize on this momentum by developing evidence-based policies for healthier food environments. It will focus on implementing four key policies: food labeling, public procurement, regulation of food marketing to children, and fiscal policies.

Impact evaluations and research will support the implementation of food labeling and public procurement policies, while other policies will be modeled for effectiveness. The project will also explore pathways to change for the entire policy bundle. A multi-stakeholder coalition, funded by IDRC and the Rockefeller Foundation, will drive the project, leveraging existing infrastructure for scalability and sustainability. (Currently ongoing)

Website: https://www.idrc.ca/en/project/catalyzing-food-environment-policy-actions-towards-healthy-diet-and-prevention-double

EU DEDIPAC

The DEDIPAC Knowledge Hub (KH) aims to investigate the determinants of dietary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors and translate this knowledge into more effective strategies for promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is a multidisciplinary consortium involving scientists from 46 research centers across Europe. The work is organized into three Thematic Areas (TAs): TA 1 focuses on harmonizing methods for research, surveillance, and evaluation of interventions and policies; TA 2 delves into understanding determinants across different life stages and vulnerable groups; TA 3 evaluates public health interventions. Involvement is primarily in TA 1, led by Prof. Pieter van ‘t Veer, where we contribute to two specific tasks. Task 1.1.2 involves studying sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake in the NQplus study, examining demographic determinants of intake using different assessment methods. Task 1.1.3 aims to develop an integrated smartphone-based assessment method for diet, physical activity, and their determinants, with a pilot study planned in Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. (December 2013 - November 2016)

Website: https://www.wur.nl/en/project/dedipac.htm

EU RODAM Study

The RODAM study assesses the health and wellbeing of Ghanaian residents in Ghana and Europe and follows them up over time. With this unique approach the RODAM study attempts to unravel the causes of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors among African migrants in Europe and non-migrants sub-Saharan Africa.

Information on the first wave of data collection (2012-2015) can be found under baseline, and on the second wave under follow-up (2019-2021). Find the latest RODAM updates on our news page, view our recent publications on the publications page or find out health information material here. (Ongoing cohort study)

Website: http://www.rod-am.eu/

TACLED project

The TACLED project investigated the changing food and nutrition environment in the context of rapid urbanisation in Africa. Its main objective was to explore factors associated with dietary patterns (what people eat) and practices (how, where, when and with whom they eat), within two African cities (Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya). The project employed a combination of novel data collection techniques (including using existing scientific evidence and engaging the local people and stakeholders) to gather information about the people’s eating patterns and practices, and the factors associated with them, and to develop context-appropriate guidelines and policies for creating healthier food environments in the two cities. (April 2017 – June 2019) 

Website: Dietary transitions in African Cities: TACLED project (ird.fr) 

AfriFOODlinks - Transforming urban food environments by strengthening inter-city linkages in Africa and Europe 

Launched in December 2022, AfriFOODlinks is an EU funded project. Coordinated by ICLEI Africa, the project gathers 26 partners across the globe to improve food security and urban sustainability in 65+ cities in Africa and Europe by: i. Applying an urban food systems lens to promote shifts to healthy, sustainable diets ii. Transforming urban food environments through real-world socio-technical experiments iii. Promoting inclusive multi-actor governance to empower public officials, small businesses and communities with ownership and agency to shape their food systems iiii. Accelerating innovative, women- and youth-led agri-food businesses to support local value addition and inclusive economic participation. 

AfriFOODlinks aims to address the systemic underpinnings of food insecurity and environmental impact, to lead to real transformation. The project views urban food environments as the key area for improving nutrition and reducing environmental impact in African cities because this is where residents make the choices about the food they eat. It is also where the food security priorities of food availability, access, agency, utilisation and stability manifest. (Launched in December 2022) 

Website: Home - afrifoodlinks 

Talent Consortium 

The Transforming Adolescent LivEs Through NutriTion (TALENT) Consortium, established in 2018, comprises biomedical scientists (epidemiology, nutrition, laboratory science, intervention development), social scientists (psychology, sociology, social geography) and experts in policy and public engagement from the United Kingdom, four African countries (Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, South Africa and The Gambia) and four locations in India (Dervan, Pune, Mumbai and Mysore). TALENT includes eight sites (in five different low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)) at different stages of economic and nutrition transition. TALENT recruited participants from both rural (Dervan in India and Keneba in The Gambia), urban (Abidjan in Cote D’Ivoire, Mumbai in India, Mysore in India and Soweto in South Africa) and peri-urban (Jimma in Ethiopia and Pune in India) settings. TALENT aimed to share expertise and build capacity amongst biomedical researchers in qualitative research through training and mentorship and by leveraging local funding. A further aim was to provide new insights into ways to address the double burden of malnutrition amongst adolescents living in LMICs by affording opportunities for young people to discuss their own lived experiences and views of diet and physical activity. (Currently ongoing) 

Website: https://www.ennonline.net/fex/66/adolescentdietphysicalactivity 

Healthier Diets 4 Healthy Lives (HD4HL) 

The HD4HL Project is intended to build evidence and mobilize multi-stakeholder action toward a policy bundle for healthier and more equitable consumer food environments that reduce the double burden of malnutrition. A coalition of government agencies (Ministry of Health, Food and Drugs Authority, National Development Planning Commission), Academia (University of Ghana) and Civil Society (Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy) will collaborate on this project. The Food and Drugs Authority together with the University of Ghana are coordinating implementation of work package 2 (leveraging Food Composition Data, and Nutrient Profiling Model development). The Ministry of Health, together with the National Development Commission are coordinating the Policy Bundle Development. The Civil Society - Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy is coordinating the advocacy and scholar activism. (Currently ongoing) 

Website: https://www.hd4hl.org/project-overview/ 

HealthyFoodAfrica  

The main aim of the five year-long project is to increase the resilience of food systems in Africa, and to link food production to nutrition performance, thereby increasing the range and quality of food products for a healthy diet. To achieve this, it engages with farmers, food processors, retailers, civil society organizations (CSOs), policymakers and local experts, and helps them create, and test, innovative technologies, practices and governance arrangements that contribute to a more sustainable, resilient and healthy food system for all. HealthyFoodAfrica promotes innovation in supply chain governance, food products and technologies, as well as supporting educational approaches, capacity building and food policy development. (June 2020 – May 2025)  

Website: Healthy food for Africa - Nibio 

ACE-NCD (The ARUA Centre of Excellence for NCDs) 

The ARUA Centre of Excellence for NCDs seeks to strengthen NCD training and research capacity building of young scholars spanning from the medical and health sciences, public health, engineering, basic sciences, social sciences and humanities. In addition, the Centre will mount short courses, both face-to-face and online, focusing on broad NCD thematic areas (Early Detection and Control, Prevention and Models of care); support research teams to secure research funding to enable them undertake research and dissemination; and leverage on unique and collective strengths of its partners to become the focal point for NCD research in Africa. The goal is to conduct research, build capacity and disseminate findings that will address the rising problem of NCDs in Sub-Saharan Africa and the region. (Currently ongoing) 

Website: Non-Communicable Diseases - ARUA & Home - Arua ncd (arua-ncd.org) 

Stop NCD 

STOP-NCD is a five-year NIHR Global Health Research Centre, which aims to improve health and wellbeing of populations in West Africa, through comprehensive and sustainable capacity strengthening for high-quality applied NCD research. The aim is to improve health and wellbeing of populations in West Africa by developing capacity for high-quality research to inform improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of inter-connected NCDs (hypertension, diabetes and co-existing stress, anxiety and depression). (Currently ongoing) 

Website: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/stop-ncd 

School Health and Nutrition consortium 

This research consortium aims to respond to the research requests of the School Meals Coalition member states by building a holistic evidence base, covering all aspects of school health and nutrition research to inform decision-making.  

The research is currently focused in six areas: (i) identifying which school-based health interventions have the strongest evidence; (ii) determining the value-for-money of school health interventions and their impact on education outcomes; (iii) documenting good practices from national school meal programmes across high- and low-income countries; (iv) achieving consensus on the nutrition indicators to collect for school-age children and adolescents; (v) examining the relationship between school meals and diet, food systems and climate; and (vi) establishing a platform for early career researchers and youth who have an interest in school health and nutrition. (Currently ongoing) 

Website: Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition | LSHTM 

‘A Youth-centred Preventive Action Approach towards co-created implementation of socially and Physically activating Environmental interventions’ (YoPAAPE project) 

Health promotion and prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are essential to improve citizens’ wellbeing. However, these initiatives need to start early since teenagers are at risk of developing NCDs, such as diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, and mental and neurological disorders. The EU-funded YoPAAPE project will design interventions to improve the lifestyle of vulnerable teens (12-18 years of age). The project will introduce teen-centred, evidence-informed co-creation to reduce NCD risk and address unhealthy lifestyles and health inequalities. YoPAAPE will engage teenagers, researchers and local stakeholders to co-create communities in urban environments in richer countries (Denmark and the Netherlands) and low/middle income countries (Nigeria and South Africa). (Currently ongoing) 

Website: A Youth-centred Preventive Action Approach towards co-created implementation of socially and Physically activating Environmental interventions — Amsterdam UMC research portal 

The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium 

H3Africa empowers African researchers to be competitive in genomic sciences, establishes and nurtures effective collaborations among African researchers on the African continent, and generates unique data that could be used to improve both African and global health. 

There is currently a global effort to apply genomic science and associated technologies to further the understanding of health and disease in diverse populations. These efforts work to identify individuals and populations who are at risk for developing specific diseases, and to better understand underlying genetic and environmental contributions to that risk. Given the large amount of genetic diversity on the African continent, there exists an enormous opportunity to utilize such approaches to benefit African populations and to inform global health. 

The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) consortium facilitates fundamental research into diseases on the African continent while also developing infrastructure, resources, training, and ethical guidelines to support a sustainable African research enterprise – led by African scientists, for the African people. The initiative consists of 51 African projects that include population-based genomic studies of common, non-communicable disorders such as heart and renal disease, as well as communicable diseases such as tuberculosis. These studies are led by African scientists and use genetic, clinical, and epidemiologic methods to identify hereditary and environmental contributions to health and disease. To establish a foundation for African scientists to continue this essential work into the future work, the consortium also supports many crucial capacity building elements, such as: ethical, legal, and social implications research; training and capacity building for bioinformatics; capacity for biobanking; and coordination and networking. Consortium has drawn attention to the need to accelerate NCDs research on the continent: Enabling the genomic revolution in Africa - PMC (nih.gov). (Ongoing consortium) 

Website: https://h3africa.org/