Unhealthy diets, all forms of malnutrition and environmental constraints create increasing challenges. World Food Policy Report 2024 A report released today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) highlights the importance of transforming complex global food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets for all.
While progress in reducing undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies has slowed in low- and middle-income countries, overweight and obesity are skyrocketing worldwide. Many countries face a double burden of malnutrition – where undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies coexist with overweight or obesity, or diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), in individuals, households, communities and across the life course. At the same time, food systems are urgently needed to transform in order to reduce their significant environmental impacts.
“Achieving ambitious Global Development Goals on diet and nutrition requires innovative research across food systems that informs and supports equitable impact at scale. People and planet are at the heart of our work, and our research and action priorities are centered on understanding how to make sustainable, healthy diets aspirational, affordable and accessible for all.”
Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director, CGIAR
of 2024 GFPR: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and NutritionThe report, co-authored by 41 researchers representing IFPRI and multiple partner organizations, calls for urgent and concerted efforts to transform the world’s food systems to ensure equitable access to sustainable healthy diets for all. Improved diets are urgently needed worldwide, and multiple issues across the food system need to be addressed to achieve meaningful and sustainable change in diets, and ultimately nutrition and health outcomes.
“Evidence shows that poor diet is a leading cause of disease worldwide and that improving diets could save one in five lives. It is therefore essential to prioritize improving diets as a key starting point for tackling all forms of malnutrition and diet-related NCDs,” emphasized Deanna Olney, Director of IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diet and Health Division and lead author of the report.
In 2024 GFPR, Sustainable healthy eating It also provides evidence-based recommendations on how to make the foods that make up these diets more attractive, affordable, available and accessible, while considering their environmental impacts. This holistic approach recognises the interactions between dietary patterns, the food environment, food production, food-related policies and broader social and environmental factors.
“Our research shows that more than two billion people lack access to a healthy diet, many of them living in Africa and South Asia. According to the FAO, more than half of children under five and two-thirds of adult women suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. The 2024 GFPR will be a wake-up call to prioritize sustainable healthy diets as a foundation for public health and sustainable development,” said Johan Swinnen, IFPRI Executive Director and CGIAR Managing Director for Systems Transformation.
The report recommends transformative actions based on a comprehensive food systems framework: “Sustainable healthy diets can be achieved by addressing demand-side challenges, such as affordability and consumer preferences, while addressing supply-side issues to improve the food environment and increase access to nutritious foods,” said Purnima Menon, Senior Director for Food and Nutrition Policy at CGIAR and IFPRI, a lead contributor to the report.
The report highlights that collaborative efforts, innovative interventions, food systems approaches, and sound policies and governance are essential to overcome the complex challenges facing global food systems. As countries strive to meet malnutrition targets needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, the GFPR 2024 highlights the need for rapid action, strong financing mechanisms and evidence-based policy-making to achieve sustained impact.
The 2024 GFPR is an important contribution to the global dialogue on food security, public health and sustainable development, providing a roadmap for the transformation needed in global food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets and nutrition for all.
sauce:
International Food Policy Research Institute
