Area of Work 3 (AoW3) of the CGIAR Better Diets and Nutrition science program
Improving Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Production via an End-to-End approach: Design and Implementation of a Package of Interventions in Sri Lanka
Background and justification
Suboptimal diets are a leading contributor to global morbidity and mortality. Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables is a cost-effective public health strategy to reduce malnutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases. Fruits and vegetables are rich in essential micronutrients and dietary fiber, and have a lower environmental footprint compared to many other nutrient sourcesโmaking them critical to both human and planetary health.
Despite their importance, fruit and vegetable consumption remains far below recommended levels globally. In many low- and middle-income countries, including Sri Lanka, this gap is exacerbated by insufficient dietary data, low awareness, and structural food system barriers. Improving fruit and vegetable intake requires a consumer-first approach that addresses desirability, accessibility, affordability, and availability through coordinated, context-specific interventions. These must be embedded within a holistic end-to-end approach that links dietary behavior change with supply, food environments and policy.
Objective
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), through the CGIAR Better Diets and Nutrition program, is looking for an organization to support efforts to promote fruit and vegetable consumption in Ratnapura and Badulla districts through a package of interventions that includes (but is not limited to) social and behavior change strategies, vendor training, and other approaches addressing key demand and food environment barriers. These interventions will be targeted to consumers and food vendors, as well as community leaders and other important actors in the fruit and vegetable value chain in Sri Lanka.
Scope of work
In close coordination with IFPRI and its partners, the selected organization(s) will be responsible for the co-design and implementation of interventions aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, primarily targeting women of reproductive age, food vendors and other actors in the food environment. The package of interventions is being designed using a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach with input from both international and national stakeholders. This package of interventions will be part of an end (consumer) to end (production) approach that includes activities across the chain aiming to address availability, accessibility, affordability, and other constraints to ideal dietary intake practices, specifically low consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Key responsibilities of the selected organization(s) will include:
Co-designing the final interventions: collaborate to finalize design of interventions based on HCD and other insights, ensuring that strategies and messages are contextually relevant and aligned with project objectives for both consumers and food environment.
Developing a detailed implementation plan: prepare comprehensive workplans that specify activities, cost, timelines, roles and responsibilities, performance targets, coordination mechanisms, and quality assurance measures for both consumers and food environment.
Assembling and training a team of field workers to take charge of delivering interventions to communities and households, including supervisors, with appropriate communication channels and logistics to ensure quality implementation and issue tracking.
Adaptive learning and management: systematically document results and learnings from implementation and monitoring of field activities and refine the intervention package and implementation modalities and plans, based on evidence from the field for both consumers and food environment.
Maintaining rigor and quality: oversee high-quality execution of all field activities, adhering to agreed timelines and standards. Establish and maintain robust systems for monitoring, reporting, and continuous improvement.
Monitoring of field activities to ensure that targets for activity implementation as well as outputs and outcomes are being met in target communities.
Please note that we may select one organization to complete this Scope of Work for both consumer-focused and food environment-focused interventions or we may opt to hire separate organizations for these to separate intervention areas, based on applications.
Deliverables
Finalized implementation plan and timeline
Quarterly progress updates and field activity reports
Monitoring and documentation outputs (e.g., observation checklists, activity logs)
Summary report of adaptations and lessons learned
Required qualifications of the organization/ firm
Proven experience designing and implementing related interventions (i.e. SBCC health and nutrition campaigns; food assistance programs; food vendor trainings) in Sri Lanka, ideally for health and nutrition interventions at community-level and/or household-level
Familiarity with participatory design and/or Human-Centered Design (HCD) approaches (preferred)
Capacity to lead field-based work, including team management and local engagement.
Proven skills and experience with designing and using rigorous monitoring and quality assurance systems
Strong documentation and communication skills
Timeline
We estimate the hiring process to be complete in June and July 2025, selection and onboarding of an organization in August 2025 to immediately start this Scope of Work.
Proposal submission guidelines
Interested organizations should submit:
A one-page technical proposal describing your proposed approach to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in the target communities.
A one-page organizational profile highlighting your relevant implementation experience in similar settings.
(Optional: Attach relevant work samples or organizational registration documents.)