Healthy diets are the cornerstone to good nutrition. However, consumers’ preferences, barriers, and motivators to consuming a healthy diet are complex but must be understood to design effective social and behavior change activities. In Nigeria, USAID Advancing Nutrition is conducting consumer demand research in three northern states to understand how to best increase consumption of target nutritious foods.

This work builds on a collaborative workshop USAID Advancing Nutrition Nigeria held with government partners and food systems actors. The workshop resulted in the prioritization of foods that are important for local diets and livelihoods–specifically agricultural production. Prioritized foods include bio-fortified crops, legumes, dark green leafy vegetables, fish, and eggs. Following the consumer demand research, USAID Advancing Nutrition will implement targeted social and behavior change activities that engage local stakeholders to understand consumers’ preferences, barriers, and desires so that they can design and test innovative social marketing campaigns. We also expect to test Generating Demand for Healthy Diets: A Guide to Social Marketing in Nutrition, which explores innovative approaches to engage the private and public sectors to drive consumer demand.