Nutrition in Food Systems | Results for Development

Results for Development is supporting countries to transform food systems to address malnutrition. We are generating much-needed evidence and resources, and directly supporting country change agents to make this possible.

The Challenge

Food systems – the network of activities involving the production, processing, transport, sale and consumption of food – have enormous potential to support healthy diets and nutrition while also advancing livelihoods and prosperity and protecting the planet. Currently, however, many food systems fail to deliver on this potential. Too often, food systems are largely shaped by an array of piecemeal and even contradictory policies and programs, resulting in widespread hunger, malnutrition, poverty and environmental degradation.

With the rapid change in diets and food systems toward less nutritious, more processed food 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 2050. New, transformative approaches that focus on nutritious diets and strengthening entire food systems are critically needed. More than 100 countries pledged to create national food systems pathways during the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021, but implementation of many of these pathways has stalled and requires renewed commitment, sustainable financing and technical assistance to drive progress.

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 and water and soil degradation?
What are the capacities and institutions that need to be built or strengthened to deliver the transformation?
How can we support the emergence of global and local movements for food systems transformation?
How can we support regional, national and local policy and decision-makers to take a food systems approach for more comprehensive policymaking?

Our Approach

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 – government officials, global donors, the private sector and civil society. We are providing practical resources and evidence to inform decision-making and support change agents to carry the transformation of diets and food systems forward.

Our Work

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit encouraged governments to harness the power of food systems to benefit people and the planet. In response, R4D and City University of London supported decision makers to figure out how to take action. We created a package of resources to support policymakers to take a food systems approach to policymaking. The evidence review and four technical briefs articulate what it means to take a food systems approach and help decision makers engage stakeholders, estimate costs and write policy.
R4D partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to support countries in their efforts to strengthen agrifood systems for greater nutrition impact. This work explores evidence on what works to achieve a healthy diet and improve dietary diversity within agrifood systems, as well as the associated costs and benefits. It also provides practical evidence-based recommendations on how to optimize agrifood system investments for maximum nutrition impact. R4D highlighted investment experiences in India, Bangladesh, Palestine and Ethiopia to better understand how agrifood system investments can promote healthy diets.
R4D developed a Nutrition Investment Toolkit for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to support the design and implementation of nutrition-related activities within large MCC investments. The toolkit promotes a nutrition-smart approach that considers the impacts that investments in any sector may have on nutrition. It identifies nutrition-related activities with the best return on investment. It also recommends tools for measuring and modeling nutrition-related benefits from interventions that are intentionally designed to improve food systems, health, and nutrition outcomes. R4D continues to support MCC with training, dissemination, and application of the toolkit’s resources.

Catalyzing a Systemic Shift Towards Sustainable Food Systems

An ambitious and strategic approach is needed to drive the systemic shift in food systems and diets necessary to achieve good health and nutrition, climate and environmental sustainability, sustainable economic growth and the SDGs.