The world faces a pandemic of malnutrition marked by the coexistence of overweight and underweight and a surge of diet-related chronic diseases. Global food production is the single largest driver of environmental degradation and climate instability. The new EAT–Lancet Commission report identifies targets and strategies for achieving a sustainable global food system for healthier diets by 2050—including eliminating land use conversion for food, protecting biodiversity, reducing water use, and improving diets.
On Feb. 13, IFPRI, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and EAT invited 100 experts to discuss challenges posed by our food systems, the risks of “business as usual” on planetary health, and potential remedies at the Dhaka, Bangladesh launch of the EAT-Lancet report.
IFPRI Country Representative Akhter Ahmed broadly outlined Bangladesh’s nutrition transition. Bangladesh achieved one of the fastest reductions in child underweight and stunting, largely due to innovative public policies and the government’s commitment to research-based policy reform. But unhealthy diets persist due to an interplay of factors. “Our food system is focused on increasing food availability and maintaining rice self-sufficiency. It’s time to reorient our food system to focus on supplying food to providing high-quality diets for all,” Ahmed said.
South Asia falls critically short of the EAT-Lancet reference diet in many areas, GAIN Country Director Rudaba Khondker said. There is excessive starch and insufficient consumption of nutritious foods. One reason is cost: More than half (52 percent) of household income is needed to buy the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of young children in Bangladesh not eating enough, carrying long-term consequences. Since the vast majority of food in rural and urban areas are purchased from markets, Khondker suggested that public-private approaches to encourage healthy behaviors—such as combining healthy food subsidies and junk food taxes—may hold promise,
Saleemul Huq , director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said that Bangladesh is well-positioned in terms of strategies and policies to combat climate change. The government established the 2009 Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, with a $100 million annual budget; a few years later, Bangladesh signed the 2015 Paris Agreement; and the 8th Five Year Plan (2021-2025) is in the pipeline, with a greater emphasis on food and nutrition. Yet policies alone are insufficient for transforming food systems. “Policies, laws, and regulations have a role to play, but they don’t change behavior. People change behavior,” Huq said. Investing in youth as gamechangers, especially girls, will be critical to change diets, behaviors, and broader consumption patterns—particularly for those making household food decisions and serving as the primary caregivers of children.
Affordability, cost efficiency, lack of knowledge on the drivers of diets, undeveloped agricultural value chains—these are some constraints to healthy diets, according to Hossain Zillur Rahman , executive director of the Power & Participation Research Centre. He called for an overhaul of food production to create sustainable food systems, with actions at many levels. One starting point is establishing departments of food science in Bangladesh universities. Another is investing in building different types of skills along the “farm-to-plate” pathway to ensure it is healthy. He emphasized that adopting an aspirational narrative for food systems transformation in Bangladesh will be critical to win support from key groups, including youth (particularly girls) and policymakers.
Md. Ruhul Amin Talukder, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, acknowledged the government’s strides in enacting the 2011 Health Policy, its Country Investment Plans for improved agriculture, food security and nutrition, its attainment of many Millennium Development Goals, and the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. Yet challenges remain in implementing the Second National Nutrition Plan of Action (NPAN-2) in investment, coordination, and governance. Talukder suggested further research comparing Bangladesh’s existing dietary guidelines with the EAT-Lancet reference diet.
BRAC University’s James P. Grant School of Public Health Professor Kaosar Afsana noted that despite nutritional improvements, alarming levels of micronutrient deficiencies signify huge gaps in knowledge. “We still do not know the key drivers of anemia, the population-level requirements for different groups, and we know very little about how much these recommendations cost. We have to work together to create a cost-effective, cost-efficient food systems accessible to the whole population,” Afsana said.
Our investments are our commitments to transforming food systems to deliver safe, diversified diets. In this context, FAO Senior Nutritionist Lalita Bhattacharjee examined key issues in food consumption and utilization. Moving forward, she called for accelerating the base of decline in share of cereal consumption, in tandem with reducing infection caused by food safety issues, identified by the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority and FAO’s foodborne illness surveillance system.
Food value chain pathways pose many health risks, said Nazneen Ahmed, a senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Low quality agricultural inputs and food safety hazards undercut utilization of essential nutrients. She referred to a collaborative study by the National Food Safety Laboratory and FAO, which found virtually all (96 percent) of Bangladesh’s milk supply is contaminated, largely due to contaminated cattle fodder. A similar scenario exists for poultry feed. In view of this, she said, tackling weaknesses in processing, transport, and storage is critical for improving access to higher nutritive-value foods on the market.
Akhter Ahmed is the Country Representative for IFPRI Bangladesh and Senior Research Fellow with IFPRI's Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. Julie Ghostlaw is the Country Program Manager for the IFPRI Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program. This post also appears on the IFPRI Bangladesh blog.
Missed the event? Watch a recording of the event here (via Facebook).