Harmonized indicators for measuring progress toward more sustainable, healthier food systems

 

Food systems lie at the intersection of nutrition, population health, environmental sustainability, and climate change. By improving the measurement tools available to researchers, policymakers, and civil society organizations, actions can be taken to transform food systems.
The International Network for Food and Obesity/Non-communicable Diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) develops and deploys research modules that allow researchers and civil society to measure and benchmark the strengths and weaknesses of their national and local food environments. This research makes it possible to track the common underlying drivers of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change.

The research team will identify the public policy and private business actions that must be prioritized for food systems to become more sustainable and enable healthier diets. These will be tested in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda, at both the national and the municipal levels. The project will also develop modelling tools to improve understanding of the cost and affordability of healthy sustainable diets through the diet-cost tool in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Finally, it will strengthen the mechanisms that support the integration of sustainability indicators into the existing INFORMAS framework.