Econutrition: implementation models from the Millennium Villages Project in Africa

Abstract

Econutrition integrates environmental health and human health, with a particular focus on the interactions among the fields of agriculture, ecology, and human nutrition. Soil loss and degradation and human undernutrition are major barriers to economic development in Africa. A primary aim of the Millennium Villages Project in Africa is to meet the Millennium Development Goals by integrated multisectoral interventions in health and nutrition, agriculture, and environmental sustainability in hunger and poverty hot spots in Africa. Econutrition is only one example of how interdisciplinary approaches are not only critical to alleviating extreme poverty but also fundamental to linking basic science understanding in multiple areas. Human health and agricultural productivity gain, and the costs of the gains are lowered, when we take the opportunity to apply different disciplines through cross-sectoral, thematically linked interventions.