Our latest update of the living food systems evidence and gap map (E&GM) focuses on the addition of multiple new social assistance and social insurance intervention categories that we added to the map for the first time. The map now also includes conditional cash transfers, unconditional cash transfers, food vouchers, social insurance, food taxes and food subsidies. While these new categories make up most of the studies we added, several studies identified in this update also evaluate areas previously identified as gaps. 

Our E&GM has been living for a few years now and we are interested in learning more about who uses it and how it is being used. We would therefore greatly appreciate any feedback through our short survey that can be found here and on our E&GM website.

E&GM timeline:

Highlights and new additions

• This update adds 431 new impact evaluations and 31 new systematic reviews for a total of 2,914 included studies. 
• 83 new studies address previously identified intervention and outcome gaps.
• Nine high- and medium-confidence systematic reviews have been added for this update. Overall, during the update period 14 high- and medium-confidence reviews have been identified.
• We have added several new intervention types to the map: food taxes, food subsidies, social insurance, food vouchers, and cash transfers (conditional and unconditional). A total of 344 new studies in the map evaluate these interventions. 
• This update shows a large increase in the proportion of national and transnational programs evaluated: 55 per cent in the current update compared with 9 per cent in the original map and 18 per cent overall. 
• This update focuses on the social protection interventions. The overall intervention trends are still similar to those in the original map, although the updates show a reduction in the rate of publication of studies on supplementation and fortification and an increase in studies on agricultural education and training interventions.
• We continue to see greater use of quasi-experimental methods, currently 59 per cent of studies in the update and 35 per cent overall in the E&GM.

Over the past four years of our living Food Systems and Nutrition Evidence and Gap Map, developed with support from BMZ through GIZ’s “Knowledge for Nutrition” program, we have continuously monitored the available evidence on the effects of food systems interventions on food security and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. This process provides decision-makers and researchers with the most up-to-date evidence and ensures that the map remains current as the evidence base rapidly expands. The first six are here, here, here, here, here and here. (Or if you prefer, those updates are discussed in blog posts here, here, here, here, and here)

In this update we added studies from the August-October 2023 search and an additional search for studies evaluating the new set of interventions all the way back to year 2000. In total we added 462 studies. The E&GM now includes a total of 2,914 studies. In the original map, we identified several evidence gaps. Although we have identified a few new studies in these areas, as noted in our mid-term report, for the most part these areas still stand as gaps in the literature. However, the evidence base of one of these gaps has grown significantly since then. Women’s empowerment outcomes have been measured in 128 of the studies included in the E&GM, including 43 from the current update. Multiple studies identified in this update also evaluate other interventions and outcomes considered as gaps. We added:

• Three studies evaluating gender transformative interventions, for a total of 15
• Five studies evaluating gender transformative outcomes, for a total of 24
• One study evaluating food loss outcomes, for a total of four 
• Eleven studies measuring diet insufficiency, for a total of 40 
• Twelve studies evaluating food subsidy interventions, for a total of 29
• Three systematic reviews on outcomes related to other diet quality/adequacy measures, for a total of 27
• One systematic review including interventions relating to agricultural insurance, for a total of one
• Three studies evaluating women’s empowerment interventions, for a total of 50

Expansions of the map

In this map update, we added a total of 344 new studies in the new social assistance and social insurance categories. Conditional cash transfers are now one of the most common intervention categories in the map with a total of 251 studies. Unconditional cash transfers is also a large category with 187 studies, while food vouchers, taxes and subsidies have much smaller evidence bases. 

Many of these studies focus on national-scale governmental programs. For example, an evaluation of Brazil’s PROGRESA (Gertler 2004) shows how this conditional cash transfer program worth from 20 to 30% of household income improved children’s stunting levels. Another study evaluated a monthly unconditional cash transfer in Malawi and found improvements in household expenditure levels and investment on productive assets (Miller, 2011). 

Previously, we added a year filter to the map to allow users to search for evidence from specific years. We also expanded the inclusion criteria for women’s empowerment interventions, so any such program is now included, not just those that take place within the context of food systems. Gender transformative interventions are also now included as a separate intervention within the empowerment category. Gender transformative interventions differ from women’s empowerment interventions in that they aim to influence structural and relational aspects of inequality, while women’s empowerment interventions focus specifically on women and increasing their access to resources, female representation as well as focusing on their rights (Wong et al. 2019). Additionally, the map has a new outcome category for gender transformative outcomes.

Further information on additions to the Food Systems and Nutrition E&GM can be found here. If you are interested, you can find other publications related to the map here and the map itself here.