Value chains to improve diets: Diagnostics to support intervention design in Malawi

In this paper, the authors apply an innovative multisectoral diagnostic to examine the entry points for potential interventions in food systems to improve the diets in a rural population in Malawi. The paper is structured as follows: The authors begin by describing the country context and the methods necessary to diagnose and contextualize dietary problems in target populations, prioritizing nutritious foods based on their relative and potential contribution to diets. Then they assess constraints and intervention opportunities along these food chains, mapping the evidence from the diagnostics to a framework based on constraints in supply and demand for these specific foods. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications in terms of intervention design and research gaps