Designing effective nutrition-sensitive programmes often requires making decisions about which foods to promote, produce, or distribute. Depending on the programme, these decisions must navigate diverse and sometimes competing priorities—nutrient adequacy, affordability, cultural acceptability, income potential, environmental sustainability, and more. To help programme designers weigh these trade-offs more transparently and systematically, we developed Agrifood—a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool.

Agrifood is highly flexible and adaptable for use across a range of contexts—whether in agriculture, community nutrition, value chain strengthening, or market-based and social protection interventions. It enables users to define a target population and identify foods of interest. Up to ten decision criteria can be selected from a built-in list or customized by the user. Stakeholders—such as nutritionists, agriculturalists, local authorities, or programme staff—then assign relative importance (weights) to each criterion based on their priorities.

Using data on local dietary patterns and food composition, the tool evaluates each food or food combination against the selected criteria. It then calculates scores and ranks combinations based on how well they meet nutrient needs and stakeholder-defined priorities. Outputs include top-ranked food options, visualizations of trade-offs across criteria, and sensitivity analyses to support evidence-based discussions.

By making decision-making processes more transparent, participatory, and aligned with local goals, Agrifood helps bridge gaps between sectors. It supports more effective, context-specific interventions to improve diets and nutrition outcomes.

Access the tool here