Publication: Future of Food: Shaping the Global Food System to Deliver Improved Nutrition and Health
Loading...
Published
2016-04
ISSN
Date
2016-04-21
Editor(s)
Abstract
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). Despite significant progress, 795 million people still are not getting the minimum dietary energy needs. The majority of these people are in Sub-Saharan Africa, in which 1 in 4 people are hungry; and in South Asia, in which 1 in 6 people are hungry. More than 2 billion people are deficient in key vitamins and minerals7 that are necessary for growth, development, and disease prevention. Globally, over 2 billion people are overweight or obese, two-thirds of whom live in developing countries. This issue clearly is not just a developed country problem. Energy and micronutrient deficiency are contributors to the 165 million children under 5 who are stunted and cannot grow to achieve their full potential. Globally, this number is equivalent to approximately 1 in 4 children under 5 years, with an even more concentrated situation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (1 in 3 children). Arguably child stunting is one of the biggest development challenges. If not addressed it will profoundly undermine our ability to end poverty and promote shared prosperity.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Townsend, Robert F.; Jaffee, Steven; Hoberg, Yurie Tanimichi; Htenas, Aira. 2016. Future of Food: Shaping the Global Food System to Deliver Improved Nutrition and Health. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24104 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Learning from the Mexican Experience with Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Energy-Dense Foods of Low Nutritional Value(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06)Faced with a large and increasing obesity epidemic, the Mexican Government in the last years has increased efforts to prevent and control it. In October 2013, Mexico’s Congress passed legislation imposing taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and calorie-dense foods of low nutritional value. These taxes were part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent and control obesity, overweight and diabetes. In addition to fiscal policy and regulation, this strategy included other health promotion and prevention interventions as well as measures to ensure better access to effective health care services. The decision to implement this fiscal policy was the result of a long advocacy process in which different actors participated, including civil society organizations and government agencies, which provided needed evidence on the status of the epidemic and options to fight against it. The taxes were designed to avoid, as much as possible, the substitution of consumption of the taxed goods for other unhealthy foods and beverages not subject to taxation. These taxes have been successful in increasing both the fiscal revenues and the price of the products taxed. There is also evidence that they have reduced consumption, particularly of SSBs. The taxes seem to have the highest impact among people in the poorest quintiles of the income distribution, who had experienced the highest increase in consumption of the goods under taxation in the last years. A debate remains on the actual impact of the taxes, particularly on health outcomes. Thus it is important to continue monitoring the impact of the taxes through the development of price and volume indicators, based on publicly available data, as well as health outcome indicators.Publication India - Taking Agriculture to the Market(Washington, DC, 2008-10)Policy makers in India recognize the importance o f well-functioning markets to agricultural growth, food security, and broad-based rural development. Markets facilitate the commercialization and diversification of farming, and they are essential for efficiently bringing food and agricultural products to domestic and international consumers. Well functioning domestic markets can reduce the cost of food and assure stability of supply, which as the recent global food crisis has highlighted, are key to assuring the food security of poor and non-poor households. They also open opportunities for greater value-addition and employment throughout the economy. The rapid growth of the Indian economy is bringing new forces for change in agricultural marketing and processing systems. Changes in consumer demand are fueled by rising incomes, increasing urbanization, a growing middle class demanding more diversified and higher-quality food, more working women demanding access to prepared or processed foods and more convenient shopping under one roof, and increased exposure to products through wider media penetration (domestic and international television, cable, and internet). These forces in turn drive changes in the structure of marketing and encourage agricultural diversification.Publication Agriculture for Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean : From Quantity to Quality(Washington, DC, 2014-03)The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has been in many ways successful in increasing agriculture production and competitiveness, as well as tackling nutrition. Mainstreaming nutrition considerations into agriculture operations can increase the availability of and access to nutritious food, which can improve the nutrition status of individuals. The challenge is how to bridge the gap that exists in region between being an agriculture powerhouse and yet having to tackle nutrition problems from the same households that produce the food. The new challenge of integrating nutrition and agriculture should be achievable with political leadership and inter-institutional coordination. This guidance note seeks to bridge some of the important knowledge gaps on how best to identify, design, implement, monitor, and evaluate agriculture and food security interventions. This note describes first the current situation in LAC with respect to agriculture and nutrition, then offers practical guidance to task team leaders (TTLs) regarding the available levers for positively impacting nutrition outcomes of agriculture projects, and presents a series of country notes and steps to be followed in designing nutrition sensitive interventions.Publication Connecting Food Staples and Input Markets in West Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-01)The report Africa Can Help Feed Africa (World Bank 2012) showed that increasing food staples1 supply can be met by better connecting African markets to each other. That report called for a stronger focus on removing trade barriers and building on the forces of regional integration. This report builds on the lessons of Africa Can Help Feed Africa by looking into the specific circum¬stances met in West Africa, home to one-third of the continent’s population and to some of its most vulnerable countries. Staple foods are the main source of calories in Africa and in West Africa. In that region, rice, followed by maize and cassava, provides the main source of calories in coastal countries, with millet and sorghum being an important source of food in Sahelian countries (Haggblade et al. 2012). The challenge of food supply is particularly acute in West Africa with some of the world’s fastest growing populations, including urban populations. West Africa’s 2011 population of 342 million is expected to increase to 516 million by 2030 and to 815 million by 2050 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division 2013); in this time frame, the region’s urban population will grow from 44 percent to 63 percent of the total population (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division 2014). As this report will show, strong reasons exist to bring a more strategic focus on promoting regional trade. The first compelling reason is that there is already a sizeable amount of trade in the region, revealing existing important complementarities between countries in the ECOWAS space. Because a large share of this trade is informal, this reality is not always well taken into account. A second reason is that developing these complementarities by facilitating trade and creating the regional soft and hard infra¬structure to incite cross-border flows would further enable (a) the exploitation of comparative advan¬tages and economies of scale in the region; (b) access to and diffusion of better production technologies; (c) competitive access to inputs, research, and extension services; and (d) improved security in the face of shocks that lead to food crises. Finally, a third reason is that existing national policies that affect trade are, by and large, inefficient and incoherent at the regional level; therefore a better use of policy making and institutions is needed to achieve food policy objectives.Publication Agricultural Policies and Trade Paths in Turkey(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-10)In 1959, shortly after the European Economic Community was founded under the 1957 Treaty of Rome, Turkey applied for Associate Membership in the then six-member common market. By 1963, a path for integrating the economies of Turkey and the eventual European Union had been mapped. As with many trade agreements, agriculture posed difficult political hurdles, which were never fully cleared, even as trade barriers to other sectors were eventually removed and a Customs Union formed. This essay traces the influences the Turkey-European Union economic institutions have had on agricultural policies and the agriculture sector. An applied general equilibrium framework is used to provide estimates of what including agriculture under the Customs Union would mean for the sector and the economy. The paper also discusses the implications of fully aligning Turkey's agricultural policies with the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, as would be required under full membership.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.