The project’s updated data and methods were publicly released with launch of the SOFI 2022 report on July 6th, and the World Bank organized a high-level discussion at a World Bank Live Event on July 14th featuring our new Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub and its associated DataBank. The following day, project researchers provided a more granular discussion of methods and data at an IFPRI Policy Seminar on July 15th.
Our World Bank Live Event for the Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub featured the World Bank Acting Chief Economist, the FAO Chief Economist, the Director-General of IFPRI, and national leaders from Africa and Asia discussing how Food Prices for Nutrition data can be used to improve food systems
Our IFPRI Policy Seminar featured Food Prices for Nutrition project researchers around the world, discussing how policy analysts and researchers can use the new methods and data in their own work
These events followed the July 6th launch of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World at UN headquarters, which this year focuses on Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Food Prices for Nutrition project assembles data and methods to monitor food access worldwide, including development of the cost and affordability of a healthy diet (CoAHD) suite of indicators used in the FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO flagship annual report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.
The key innovations behind the CoAHD approach to measuring food access and monitoring food environments include:
- use of retail prices for many differentiated food products, not just a few farm commodities,
- price conversion into standard units, accounting for edible fraction and water weight,
- selection of least-cost items in quantities sufficient nutrient adequacy or dietary guidelines,
- comparison to available income based on household survey data as a measure of affordability, and
- development of both default standards and customized methods to address specific needs in particular settings.
At the World Bank Live Event on July 14th, the use of these new metrics was discussed by leaders of international agencies including the World Bank Acting Chief Economist, the FAO Chief Economist, the Director-General of IFPRI, and national leaders from Africa and Asia. A particular focus of this event was the disaggregation of diet costs by food group and alternative indicators of affordability published by the World Bank in a new Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub and its associated DataBank.
At the IFPRI Policy Seminar on July 15th, researchers from the Food Prices for Nutrition project shared additional insights from the use of least-cost diets to measure food access within countries and globally, identifying changes in diet costs associated with climate and weather shocks, COVID-19 and other disruptions revealed by systematic monitoring and of access to healthy diets.
NEWS AND CONVERSATION
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