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.