Minimum Dietary Diversity: UN Adopts New Indicator for Women & Children to Reach Zero Hunger Goal

The United Nations Statistical Commission has adopted Minimum Dietary Diversity as a new indicator to track progress for its Zero Hunger goal in women and children.

In a move to highlight dietary quality over calorie consumption, the United Nations Statistical Commission has adopted a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator seen as key to ending malnutrition.

The Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) indicator was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th session in New York this month, and will help track progress towards SDG 2 (Zero Hunger).

The tool is under the joint custodianship of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and adds to the almost 250 indicators monitored under the global SDG framework.

MDD represents the variety of foods we consume, operating as a yes/no indicator of whether women (aged 15-49) and children have consumed at least five out of 10 defined food groups in the previous 24 hours. The idea is to focus not just on calorie consumption, but nutritious, health-promoting foods.

Why the UN is highlighting dietary diversity

Under the MDD indicator, the UN would monitor the intake of 10 food groups: grains; white roots, tubers and plantains; legumes; nuts and seeds; dairy products; meat and seafood; eggs; dark green leafy vegetables; produce rich in vitamin A; and other fruits and vegetables.

The FAO, the custodian agency for MDD for women, notes that food diversity is a pillar of a healthy diet, essential to preventing all forms of malnutrition, and supporting health, growth, development, and wellbeing.

The higher the proportion of women and children who reach the threshold of five food groups a day, the higher the chance that they consume diets that have sufficient vitamins and minerals.

The effort is supported by the World Health Organization, and is based on the idea that no single food group provides the multitude of nutrients and bioactive compounds needed for optimal growth and long-term health.

“Measuring the quality of diets is not straightforward. To assess the quality of the diet, we would ideally like to know whether diets are adequate in all nutrients, balanced in energy intake, diverse in foods consumed, and moderate in the consumption of unhealthy foods,” said Lynnette Neufeld, food and nutrition director at the FAO.

“Doing so with comparability across contexts with indicators that are easy to measure is complex. Today, we celebrate enormous progress in this regard, with the recognition of dietary diversity as a critical missing link tracking progress towards SDG 2.”

The hunger gender gap

The inclusion of MDD is the first time a measure of dietary quality will be added to food security monitoring. It’s a big deal, because it can be used to evaluate the impact of programmes, inform policies, and set targets, and focuses on the two groups most at risk of malnutrition.

The UN’s research suggests that more than 2.8 billion people – or over a third of the world – couldn’t afford a healthy diet in 2022. This is much more prevalent in low-income countries, where 71.5% of people didn’t have access to a healthy diet, versus affluent nations (6%).

Meanwhile, the food security gender gap is still a major issue, with the disparity highest in low-income regions (although it has narrowed recently). “Women are more affected by food insecurity even when taking income, education level and demographic factors into account, suggesting that prevailing gender norms and women’s limited access to resources are key factors,” the UN has found.

And greater severity of food insecurity is directly linked with lower dietary diversity globally. In 2021-22, only 47% of severely food-insecure women achieved MDD, versus 78% of those who were food-secure or mildly insecure.

“The absence of an SDG indicator on healthy diets neglected the pivotal role that diets play in achieving the 2030 Agenda, even though unhealthy dietary patterns are known to be the primary driver of poor health outcomes and non-communicable diseases globally,” said José Rosero Moncayo, the FAO’s chief statistician.

“Now, countries and the international community have a new tool at their disposal for formulating evidence-based strategies for enhancing nutrition and health outcomes through diet-related interventions, and therefore achieving SDG 2,” he added.

Can protein diversification further the FAO’s goals?

“Hopefully, this recognition of how vital dietary diversity is to nutrition security and health outcomes brings further policy, systems, and environmental changes to the production of a broader variety of food supplies, […] ensuring all people have equitable access to these diverse, nutrient-dense foods,” said Allison Lansman, research specialist at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems.

With diet-related chronic diseases also on the rise, this tool is key in ensuring healthy populations. Another measure advocated by experts is protein diversification, encouraging people to shift from currently heavy meat consumption patterns to incorporate more plants in their diet.

This has multi-pronged benefits for human and planetary health, and is a key tenet of the Eat-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet. However, the FAO’s support for meat reduction – especially in the Global South – has been found to be lacking, despite the UN body acknowledging the environmental and health detriments of animal proteins.

With responsible consumption forming the base for SDG 12, the FAO – which has faced criticism for censoring the publication of livestock’s true impact – would do well to advocate for planet-friendly alternative proteins.