Expanding Horizons: Dikoda’s Strategic Move into WASH to Strengthen Nutrition, Climate Resilience, and Maternal Nutrition
March 14, 2024
To address the urgent challenges of all forms of malnutrition
Pacific Region: Evidence-Based Nutrition Solutions
Building sustainable nutrition programs across the Pacific
Our Pacific Approach
The unique geography, cultures, and food systems of the Pacific Islands demand specialised nutrition research approaches. Our team combines deep regional knowledge with innovative methodologies to implement solutions that address Pacific communities’ specific challenges in WASH, food systems, and the broader social determinants of malnutrition.
We partner with regional organisations to design practical nutrition solutions that respect traditional food practices while addressing emerging health challenges from urbanisation and climate change
Urban food system analysis
Nutrition at school
Nutrition in the workplace
Specialised Services for the Pacific Context
- Nutrition Impact Assessments: Comprehensive situation analyses and evidence reviews that identify intervention opportunities unique to island environments
- Technical Implementation Support: On-the-ground assistance to convert research into practical solutions, including WASH infrastructure improvements, food system interventions, and health service delivery enhancements.
- Climate-Adaptive Food Systems Research: Studies examining how changing environmental conditions affect food security and nutrition across Pacific communities
- Mixed-Method Data Collection: Remote surveys via CATI technology across Fiji and Tonga, complemented by in-person CAPI surveys where deeper community engagement is needed
- Intervention Design & Evaluation: Development of cost-effective, culturally appropriate nutrition programs with clear metrics for measuring impact
- Social and Cultural Context Analysis: In-depth research on how gender norms, household economics, cultural food practices, and community power dynamics influence nutrition outcomes, enabling targeted interventions that address root causes.
Our Pacific team includes local researchers who understand the complex interplay between traditional diets, imported foods, and emerging health challenges facing island nations.
OUR GUIDING OBJECTIVES:
1
Develop scalable, culturally appropriate solutions that address all forms of malnutrition in Pacific communities and can be maintained by local stakeholders.
2
Generate high-quality, independent research that builds the evidence base for what works in Pacific nutrition contexts.
3
Design innovative, low-cost monitoring tools within Pacific infrastructure constraints while delivering actionable nutrition insights.
OUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE COMMITMENT
As a social enterprise, we reinvest in developing local research talent across the Pacific region. Women comprise most of our research teams, and we actively prioritise opportunities for junior researchers from low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This approach produces more relevant nutrition solutions and builds sustainable regional research capacity for the future.
OUR RESEARCH IN ACTION
2024-2025
Pacific Regional Study: The Impact of Climate Change on Nutrition in the Pacific (Melanesia) Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
2023
Technical assistance on the impact of the crisis on diets in Asia and the Pacific for WFP
2021
Technical assistance for food security evidence generation in Pacific for GeoPoll
2021-2022
Urban food security and nutrition research in Asia and the Pacific for FAO
2021
Adolescent obesity research and prevention in Pacific towns and cities
2024
Integrating Climate Resilience and Nutrition: A Collaborative Project with the World Food Programme Overview
OPERATING IN
14 Pacific Island Countries
Our Pacific Team
Latest Pacific News
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How urbanization impacts child nutrition
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Update: The War in Ukraine and Food Security in Asia-Pacific
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The outbreak of war between Russia and the Ukraine in
What we learned at the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Agrifood Systems Transformation
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In recent years, a consensus has arisen around the “inextricable
