Thumbnail Image

Repurposing food and agricultural policies to deliver affordable healthy diets, sustainably and inclusively: what is at stake?

Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022

Copyright licence

Year of publication 2023

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 62 p.

Author Glauber, J.; Laborde, D.;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

Category Working paper

ISBN 978-92-5-137641-6

Series title FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Paper

Series number No. 22-05

To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cc4348en

Synopsis (short abstract) The analysis presented in this report examines the impacts of repurposing food and agricultural fiscal support and border support on the cost and affordability of healthy diets and several other key socioeconomic, nutritional and climate indicators. The impacts are estimated at the global level, as well as for various income groups and geographic regions. Scenarios include repurposing fiscal support to producer support targeted to high-priority foods (those where current levels of consumption are below that of recommended levels) and to consumer subsidies targeting high-priority foods.

This working paper was developed as a background document for the FAO report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 – Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable

Cite this content as:

Glauber, J. & Laborde, D. 2023. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to deliver affordable healthy diets, sustainably and inclusively: what is at stake? Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. FAO Agricultural Development Economics Working Papers, No. 22-05. Rome, FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cc4348en

Read on Google Books and buy online

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (series)
    Flagship
    Repurposing agriculture's public budget to align healthy diets affordability and agricultural transformation objectives in Ethiopia
    Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Agricultural transformation has been ongoing for decades in Ethiopia where the agenda to improve nutrition has also gained momentum. This paper assesses ways in which the government could coherently pursue the objectives of reducing the cost of the least cost healthy diet for Ethiopians and achieving faster inclusive agricultural transformation (IAT), for example by increasing agrifood output, creating rural off-farm employment and reducing rural poverty. The main finding is that pursuing IAT objectives also allows reducing the cost of the least-cost healthy diet. Ethiopian policymakers may consider repurposing the budget for agriculture to pursue IAT objectives as suggested in this paper in order to increase value for public money, not only in terms of agrifood output growth, job creation and poverty reduction, but also in terms of increasing the affordability of healthy diets.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Technical study
    The impact of trade openness on the cost and affordability of a healthy diet
    Background paper for The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO) 2024
    2025
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This study examines how trade openness affects the cost and affordability of healthy diets using cross-country data on food prices linked to nutritional composition. Using retail price data collected from 175 countries in the context of the 2017 cycle of the World Bank’s International Comparison Program, the research investigates whether trade openness correlates with lower food prices and if this effect varies for healthier products. The analysis confirms that lower trade barriers are associated with reduced food prices, consistent with standard international trade theory. This finding holds across different measures of trade openness and levels of analysis. Importantly, results show no evidence that international trade disproportionately affects processed food prices or makes healthy options relatively more expensive.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (series)
    Flagship
    Methods and options to monitor the cost and affordability of a healthy diet globally
    Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    FAO is focusing its attention on the pursuit of healthy diets and transformations of agrifood systems to ensure healthy diets are affordable for all. Measuring and systematically monitoring the cost and affordability of healthy diets and making progress towards ensuring the affordability of healthy diets is of upmost importance and is urgently needed. To this end, FAO is committed to institutionalize the computation of the least-cost healthy diet, and the corresponding affordability indicator, and to publish updated estimates in the annual The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, as well as provide the full data series on FAOSTAT. This background paper to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report presents the new methodological refinements applied in the estimation of the average cost of a healthy diet. This is an important methodological update as it results in a more robust indicator that provides greater transparency and supports long-term systematic monitoring utilizing annually updated price data. The paper then explores potential mechanisms and data sources for monitoring globally the cost of a healthy diet.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.