Food Systems & Market Shaping

Over the past 10 years, the nutrition community has primarily focused on nutrition-specific interventions to reduce undernutrition and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030. This has been effective, but insufficient in delivering change at the pace required.

With the rapid change in diets and food systems and the resulting rise in overnutrition, one in three people in the world is currently malnourished (meaning undernourished, overweight or obese), and this is expected to rise to one in two by 2030. New, transformative approaches that focus on diets and the entire food systems are critically needed.

Key questions include:

• How can we develop political will and urgency for food systems transformation and then catalyze that will into action?
• How can we combine food systems efforts with work on other planetary issues, including climate change, water and soil degradation?
• What can we learn from major transformations that have occurred in other fields, such as energy and manufacturing?
• What are the capacities and institutions that need to be built or strengthened in order to deliver the transformation?
• How can we support the emergence of global and local movements for food systems transformation?
• How can we address market failure in specific commodities at the micro-level?

At Results for Development, we believe a radical transformation of diets and food systems is needed to ensure that people are able (and motivated) to purchase and consume healthy, nutritious foods

To achieve this, we are working with a broad range of actors — including government officials, global donors, the private sector and civil society — to shape the debate, build new institutions and initiatives and support the change agents best able to carry the transformation of diets and food systems forward.

By leveraging our cross-cutting expertise in private-sector engagement, market shaping and network convening, in combination with sector-specific knowledge of agriculture, nutrition and health, we provide our partners with the tools, technical support and connections they need to succeed.