A new SDG indicator could help end hunger, experts say

A coalition of governments, NGOs, and United Nations agencies are pushing for a new way to measure whether the world is on track to meet the U.N. goal of eliminating hunger by 2030. Healthy diets are fundamental to achieving that target — yet currently there is no way for countries to know whether their citizens can access the variety of foods they need in order to receive vital nutrients and micronutrients. Deficits can lead to chronic disease and malnutrition. Ending hunger is Sustainable Development Goal 2 of the 17 goals laid out in 2015 by the U.N. General Assembly. And while the SDG monitoring framework already contains 13 indicators for SDG 2 that are interlinked with diets — relating to child stunting, wasting, overweight rates, and anemia — none capture the quality of food people are consuming. Advocates for the new indicator believe it could be the turning point for an SDG that’s currently unlikely to be achieved by 2030. “This is a no-brainer. We have an indicator on hunger and no indicator on diets. That’s a huge gap,” said Ty Beal, senior technical specialist at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, which supports the new indicator and has worked to improve diet quality monitoring through the Global Diet Quality Project. “To be able to address zero hunger and malnutrition we have to track what people are eating and how that changes over time.” Dietary diversity is “a qualitative measure of food consumption that reflects household access to a variety of foods, and is also a proxy for nutrient adequacy of the diet of individuals,” according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. But diverse diets are out of reach for many people. In 2022, 2.8 billion people, or 35% of the global population, couldn't afford a healthy diet, while 2 billion people currently lack the essential vitamins and minerals they need. Women and children are at a higher risk of insufficient micronutrient intake. To change that, in April, the governments of Bangladesh, Brazil, Malawi, and Switzerland, with the support of FAO, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Programme, submitted a proposal to the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators, or IAEG-SDGs, for an indicator to measure minimum dietary diversity, or MDD, among children aged 6 to 23.9 months and women aged 15 to 49 years. The IAEG-SDGs, which sits under the U.N. Statistical Commission, is comprised of 27 member state representatives whose remit is to ensure the indicator framework for the SDGs is implemented, disaggregate data pertaining to the SDGs, and share best practices on monitoring. Introducing a new MDD indicator to the framework would measure the percentage of women who have consumed food and drink from at least five out of 10 food groups, and children who have consumed from at least five out of eight, as defined by WHO. This information would be collected in country-level online questionnaires and disaggregated, allowing decision-makers to see where the gaps are in accessing certain food groups and the potential health ramifications of any deficits. “[The indicator] will hold countries accountable, show where the biggest challenges are, and give us the ability to track progress,” Beal said. Additionally, it will “make a strong statement that it’s critically important for governments to know what their populations are eating to be able to adapt policies and explore the transformation of food systems,” Lynnette Neufeld, director of FAO’s food and nutrition division, told Devex. Around 100 countries already measure MDD yet 138 countries have citizens who can’t afford a healthy diet. This has only been exacerbated by the strain on global food systems triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, a cost of living crisis, and war in Ukraine while climate change and conflicts continue to further jeopardize access to nutritious food. “Progress has stalled and in some of the world it is backsliding so there’s urgency to get more granular in terms of where we are in terms of diverse diets and nutrition and this will help foster that conversation,” said Asma Lateef, chief of policy and advocacy impact at the SDG2 Advocacy Hub secretariat, which hasn’t been involved in the process but supports the indicator. It would force countries to look at whether their supply chains are delivering the foods people need, at an accessible price, in order to be healthy, Lateef added. The IAEG-SDGs is currently reviewing the public response to the indicator following an open consultation that ended on Aug. 15. The next step will be for the group to submit a draft of all suggested amendments to the global SDG indicator framework to the U.N. Statistical Commission. It will then be considered at the commission’s next five-year comprehensive review in March 2025. This will be the last chance to add indicators before the 2030 target for achieving the SDGs. Additions and revisions have been suggested for 14 other indicators across other SDGs. Only one other would also sit under SDG 2; the Global Breastfeeding Collective has suggested an indicator for achieving 70% exclusive breastfeeding rates by 2030 to reduce undernutrition among children. Almost half of all deaths of children under 5 are due to undernutrition. The MDD indicator wasn’t included at the time of the SDGs’ launch in 2015 because “we weren’t ready yet,” said Neufeld, explaining that the indicator criteria require there be a method for measuring data and existing data for 40% of countries. The launch of various tools such as FAO’s Global Individual Food Consumption Data Tool and GAIN’s Global Diet Quality Project in recent years means there is now accessible and comparable data as well as tools to make it easier for countries to measure MDD. With a total of 231 indicators across 169 targets, some countries could, however, push back against additions, concerned about having the resources to collate data on additional ones, Neufeld said. But many countries are already collecting data, she said, and there will be technical support available for countries not doing so. Overall, there needs to be more indicators, said Rakhyun E. Kim, an associate professor of Earth system governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development who has researched the impact of the SDG framework as a whole. On average, each goal is measured by 1.5 indicators. “This is problematic,” said Kim, explaining that indicators measure only one aspect of a goal, and progress can’t be considered achieved based on only one or a few. Still, countries often take the indicators seriously, he said, adding that in this regard a new MDD indicator would be welcome. After all, Lateef said: “What gets measured gets done.” Update, Aug. 22, 2024: This story has been updated to better define the minimum dietary diversity criteria for women versus children.