sustainability Review How Does Nutrition Feature in Climate-Smart Agricultural Policy in Southern Africa? A Systematic Policy Review Shaun Beattie and Susannah M. Sallu *   Citation: Beattie, S.; Sallu, S.M. How Does Nutrition Feature in Climate-Smart Agricultural Policy in Southern Africa? A Systematic Policy Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2785. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052785 Academic Editor: Abiodun Oluwole Fatunbi Received: 27 January 2021 Accepted: 26 February 2021 Published: 4 March 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; shaun.beattie123@gmail.com * Correspondence: s.sallu@leeds.ac.uk Abstract: The ability to produce and supply more food that is both nutritious and environmentally sustainable is a momentous challenge facing Africa. Where climate change is expected to nega- tively impact the agricultural resource of many parts of Southern Africa specifically. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as an approach considered capable of transforming and realigning agricultural systems to support food and nutritional security, and development under a changing climate. For sustainable food and nutrition security to be achieved, an effective policy environment is required that supports the widespread adoption of CSA application. In light of this context, this study aims to better understand nutrition’s current position within CSA-related policy at the national level by systematically reviewing all agriculture-related policy documents across Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, published between 2010 and 2019. The main findings show that efforts to address nutrition are being made within all countries and a sizeable number of policies, with crop-diversification and intensification presented as popular practices promoted as part of CSA. Nonetheless, the widespread adoption of these efforts remains weak and policies lack detail and instruction for the delivery of nutritional security. Cross-ministerial collaboration is recognised as essential for an improved policy environment, but few provide plans to strengthen such linkages or to include nutritional strategies. Clearer actions and policy outlines that promote nutrition as part of CSA are necessary if more effective action is to be achieved. Keywords: nutrition; climate-smart agriculture; Malawi; Tanzania; Zambia; climate change; policy 1. Introduction The population of continental Africa is expected to reach 2.4 billion people by 2050, with poorer countries, including Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia expected to see five-fold increases in population [1]. In the coming decades the ability to produce more food that is both nutritious and environmentally sustainable, and capable of feeding a growing population is a momentous challenge facing Africa [2,3]. African nations will need to improve the nutritional status of 256 million people currently considered undernourished whilst satisfying increasing demands for agricultural production [4]. This challenge is compounded as malnutrition remains one of the least addressed socio-economic and health related issues in the region, adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of adults and children [5,6]. Many African countries have the potential to be food self-sufficient, substantially reducing present and future food deficits, by closing yield gaps through high-input agri- cultural practices [7]. Although possible, many challenges relating to the achievement of food and nutrition security are now intensified by the effects of climate change [8]. Global climate models indicate particular vulnerability within the Southern African region with major agricultural crop yields, including maize, millet, and sorghum anticipated to fall by 10–20% by 2050 [9,10]. The four pillars of food security will likely further be negatively impacted, comprising food availability, accessibility, utilization and system stability [11]. This will exacerbate the burden of malnutrition and the income generation of rural popula- tions, undermining current efforts that reduce hunger. In turn undernutrition will weaken Sustainability 2021, 13, 2785. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052785 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability