Future of Food: Shaping the Global Food System to Deliver Improved Nutrition and Health

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This paper is third in a series of reports from the 2015 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary fund.  The first, Ending Poverty and Hunger by 2030: An Agenda for the Global Food System, called for action on climate-smart agriculture, improving nutritional outcomes, strengthening value chains and creating jobs, while improving market access for poor farmers. The second, Future of Food: Shaping a Climate-Smart Global Food System, distributed at the 2015 Annual Meetings, focused on climate-smart agriculture. This third paper focuses on how the food system can deliver improved nutrition and health for better lives and well-being. It presents a set of nutrition-sensitive interventions that countries can adopt, adapt, and apply to their circumstances. Despite significant progress the world continues to bear a triple burden of malnutrition. These three burdens are related, but distinctly different, problems: energy deficiencies (hunger), micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger), 3 and excessive net energy intake and unhealthy diets overweight/obesity). The three sections of this paper focus on, respectively, why the global food system needs to concentrate more on delivering improved nutrition and health; what types of food system interventions can deliver improved nutrition and health; and how the agenda can best be implemented.