The 2024 Global Food Policy Report highlights:

Washington DC, May 29, 2024: In the face of increasing challenges posed by unhealthy diets, malnutrition of all kinds and environmental constraints, 2024 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR), published today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), underlines the importance of transforming complex global food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets for all.

While progress in reducing malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies has slowed in low- and middle-income countries, overweight and obesity have increased rapidly worldwide. Many countries face the double burden of malnutrition; this means that malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies coexist with overweight and obesity or nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in individuals, households and communities, and across the lifespan. At the same time, there is an urgent need to transform food systems to reduce their significant environmental impact.

“To achieve our ambitious global development goals on diet and nutrition, we need innovative research that informs and supports large-scale equitable impacts across the food system. People and planet are at the heart of our efforts, and therefore our research and action priorities focus on understanding how to make sustainable healthy diets aspirational, affordable and accessible for everyone,” commented Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of CGIAR.

2024 GFPR: Food Systems for Healthy Diet and NutritionThis document, co-authored by 41 researchers representing IFPRI and various partner organisations, calls for urgent and concerted efforts to transform global food systems to ensure equal access to sustainable healthy diets for all. Improving diets is a global imperative that will require addressing many issues across food systems to achieve meaningful and sustainable changes in diets and therefore nutritional and health outcomes.

“Evidence shows that poor quality diets are the leading cause of disease worldwide, and one in five lives could be saved by improving nutrition. It is therefore imperative that we prioritize improving diets as a critical entry point to address all forms of malnutrition and diet-related NCDs.” stressed Deanna Olney, Director of IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diets and Health Unit and lead author of the report.

The 2024 GFPR highlights the need to: sustainable healthy diet and offers evidence-based recommendations on ways to make the foods that make up these diets more attractive, affordable, accessible and available, while taking into account environmental impacts. This holistic approach recognizes the interplay between dietary patterns, food environments, food production, food-related policies and broader social and environmental factors.

“Our research estimates that more than 2 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, mostly in Africa and South Asia. More than half of children under five and two-thirds of adult women are affected by micronutrient deficiencies, according to FAO. 2024 GFPR, public health and sustainability It serves as a clarion call to prioritize sustainable healthy nutrition as the cornerstone of development,” said Johan Swinnen, Director General of IFPRI and General Manager of Systems Transformation at CGIAR.

The report draws on a comprehensive food systems framework to recommend transformative actions. “By improving food environments and addressing supply-side challenges to increase the availability of nutritious foods, as well as demand-side challenges such as affordability and consumer preferences, we can make sustainable healthy eating a reality,” said Purnima Menon, Senior Director. Contributors to the report include Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR and IFPRI.

The report underscores the imperative of collaborative efforts, innovative interventions, food system approaches, and sound policies and governance to overcome the complex challenges facing global food systems. As countries work to meet the malnutrition targets needed to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 2, the 2024 GFPR underscores the need for accelerated action, robust financing mechanisms and evidence-based policymaking to create lasting impact.

The 2024 GFPR makes a significant contribution to the global dialogue on food security, public health and sustainable development by providing a roadmap for the transformative change required in global food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets and nutrition for all.

Read the report I read the summary (Eng) I read the summary (Fr) I 2024 Visit the GFPR interactive web page

Recommended ciTA.Tion: International Food Policy Research Institute. 2024. 2024 Global Food Policy Report: Food Systems for Healthy Nutrition and Nutrition. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141760