WORKSHOP ON AFFORDABILITY OF HEALTHY DIETS IN SOUTH ASIA

Healthy diets are unaffordable across most of South Asia. The UN FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report (2022) estimates that as of 2020, 1331.5 million people across South Asia could not afford to purchase a healthy, nutritious diet. 973.3 million of these were in India, 184.4 million in Pakistan, and 121.1 million in Bangladesh. The magnitude of the problem calls for urgent, innovative, and at-scale solutions across the region.

Any discussion of food systems in the context of South Asia must acknowledge the importance of cross-cutting pathways of gender and climate change that present considerable challenges shared by countries across the region. We recognize that the diverse stakeholders in the food system – government, policy makers, researchers, citizens, civil society organizations, businesses – need to work together, but often find themselves on opposite sides of this debate. Focus on the tradeoffs faced in decision making on this front are of particular interest.

The One CGIAR Initiative Transforming Agricultural Food Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) is hosting a two-day hybrid event on the ‘Affordability of Healthy Diets in South Asia’ on December 15 & 16, 2022 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, India. The event aims to engage actively with ongoing controversies and debates around the many strategies to make healthy diets more affordable in the region.

For more details about the event, click here.