Community of Practices on Extension and Advisory Services for Nutrition Security in Indonesia
A Sustainable Agri-Food Systems Approach
BACKGROUND
Poverty and hunger are significant global challenges that require lasting solutions. Indonesia faces a triple burden of malnutrition, encompassing undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. Addressing food and nutrition needs is crucial for developing human resources. Enhancing agricultural practices is essential to meet these nutritional and health demands. Extension and advisory services (EAS) are vital in this effort. In response to these issues, a Community of Practice (CoP) for extension and advisory services has been established in Indonesia. This community promotes knowledge sharing and experience exchange among its members while seeking solutions related to nutritional security. The CoP also aims to provide policy recommendations for effectively integrating nutrition into extension and advisory services. This policy brief outlines the CoP's context, core principles, and proposed future directions. Developing a CoP is a learning process that requires the involvement of stakeholders engaged in these initiatives. Our CoP comprises agricultural extensionists, Rural Advisory Service (RAS) practitioners, researchers, academics, civil society representatives, youth, university students, and journalists. This brief presents insights from the CoP and offers policy recommendations. The CoP forum can advocate for effective nutrition-sensitive extension practices. We recommend that the CoP for extension and advisory services on nutrition security adopt a comprehensive approach. This approach should include utilizing new media and digital technologies to disseminate nutrition information, engaging multiple stakeholders, implementing participatory and inclusive strategies to ensure no one is left behind, developing capacity, empowering communities for nutritional security, and establishing a robust data-based monitoring and evaluation system.