📋 Tender Overview
NICE fosters healthy diets in the urban-rural continuum of up to ten secondary cities in Low- and Mid-dle-Income Countries. Implemented by a Swiss public-private consortium, it promotes inclusive food systems governance and increased demand for and supply of nutritious agroecologically produced food, to reduce poverty amongst vulnerable groups within local food systems. Phase 2 institutionalises in-country activities and scales up policies and learning at the national and global levels.
Country/region Topic Period Budget
Global
Agriculture & food security
Household food security
Food security policy
Food safety and quality
01.07.2025 - 30.06.2029
CHF 6’930’000
The project in brief
Background The world is off track to achieve SDG2 Zero Hunger , with one-third of the population affected by at least one form of malnutrition and a similar proportion which cannot afford healthy diets (SOFI report 2024). Current food systems drive productivity gains in agriculture but also generate negative trade-off on natural resources and agrobiodiversity. Urbanisation, poverty, and climate change bring about shifts in dietary patters and reinforce inequalities of access to diverse, safe, nutritious diets. These issues are particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and among women and youth. Phase 2 of NICE addresses these challenges and opportunities in line with the global efforts to build inclusive, resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems and to improve nutrition. As applied research and innovation in food systems and in health is well advanced in Swit-zerland, NICE’s multistakeholders and multisectorial approach will foster exchanges between these actors.
Objectives To improve nutrition and health and to reduce poverty among vulnerable population groups by increasing the demand for and supply of affordable, safe and nutritious foods that are locally produced using agroecological practices in up to ten secondary city ecosystems in Bangladesh, Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal, and to scale up learning at the global level.
Target groups • Direct beneficiaries: Vulnerable urban populations (including slum dwellers, women with young children, ethnic minorities), lower middle-income city residents, and peri-urban smallholder producers (especially youth and women) engaged in agroecological food production. • Indirect beneficiaries: Municipal authorities, urban populations at large, health and education institutions, local small and medium enterprises (SME), and regional and global policy-makers benefiting from improved food systems, nutrition awareness, and knowledge exchange. • Beneficiaries will mostly be from six front-runners secondary cities in Rwanda, Kenya, Bangladesh, and in up-to-ten additional fellow secondary cities in these countries and Senegal.
Medium-term outcomes • Effective urban governance structures coordinate partnerships and advocate for improved nutrition. • City populations enjoy the enhanced availability of aff
