Metrics to analyze and improve diets through food Systems in low and Middle Income Countries
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Metrics to analyze and improve diets through food Systems in low and Middle Income Countries Mequanint B. Melesse 1,2 & Marrit van den Berg 1
&
Christophe Béné 3 & Alan de Brauw 4 & Inge D. Brouwer 1,5
Received: 12 March 2019 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Taking a food systems approach is a promising strategy for improving diets. Implementing such an approach would require the use of a comprehensive set of metrics to characterize food systems, set meaningful goals, track food system performance, and evaluate the impacts of food system interventions. Food system metrics are also useful to structure debates and communicate to policy makers and the general public. This paper provides an updated analytical framework of food systems and uses this to identify systematically relevant metrics and indicators based on data availability in low and middle income countries. We conclude that public data are relatively well available for food system drivers and outcomes, but not for all of the food system activities. With only minor additional investments, existing surveys could be extended to cover a large part of the required additional data. For some indicators, however, targeted data collection efforts are needed. As the list of indicators partly overlaps with the indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), part of the collected data could serve not only to describe and monitor food systems, but also to track progress towards attaining the SDGs. Keywords Food systems . Metrics . Indicators . SDGs
1 Introduction Improving diets features high on the global development agenda. A notable share of the world population faces at least one of the three forms of malnutrition—undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition, or overweight and obesity (e.g. Padilla et al., 2015; IFPRI, 2016). While diets are rapidly changing, they are not necessarily improving (Pingali, 2007; Popkin, 2014). Dietary transitions typically imply increased consumption of animal fats, sugars, and processed foods (Hawkes et al., 2012; Imamura et al., 2015). To stimulate changes towards healthier diets, numerous policies, projects, and programs have been implemented (e.g. * Marrit van den Berg [email protected] 1
Development Economics Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700, EW Wageningen, the Netherlands
2
ICRISAT, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
3
CIAT, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
4
IFPRI, Washington, D.C., USA
5
Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Fiorella et al., 2016; Allen and De Brauw, 2018). However, these interventions often narrowly focus on specific consumer groups or foods and rarely take a whole diet approach. Recently, a growing literature has emphasized the importance of approaching diet improvement from a food systems perspective (e.g. Miller and Welch, 2013; Sundaram, 2014; Allen and Prosperi, 2016; Gustafson et al., 2016; Caron et al., 2018). Food systems shape diets and are characterized by multiple interactions, tradeo
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