CGIAR Initiative: Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation <p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Research challenge:&nbsp;</strong>Food systems are not providing&nbsp;<a href="https://cgiar-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/j_leroy_cgiar_org/EeRYxVcWEP5KtwlePVr5NTkBFSO68n5iqq-Fm75ZwnWv3Q?e=yOyNjJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><em>sustainable healthy diets</em></a>&nbsp;(defined&nbsp;as:&nbsp;“<em>A dietary pattern that promotes all dimensions of individuals’ health and wellbeing; has low environmental pressure and impact; is accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and is culturally acceptable</em>” FAO 2019) for&nbsp;everyone, everywhere: healthy diets are unaffordable for 3 billion people. Poor&nbsp;quality diets are associated with all forms of malnutrition&nbsp;and 11 million premature adult deaths each year.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Food systems contribute significantly to environmental degradation&nbsp;and&nbsp;biodiversity&nbsp;loss,&nbsp;and&nbsp;are responsible for over 25%&nbsp;of greenhouse gas&nbsp;(GHG)&nbsp;emissions.&nbsp;While food systems are an important source of employment in low-&nbsp;and middle-income countries (LMICs), many jobs are in the informal sector with low and uncertain income and poor labor conditions, especially for women and youth.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Diets are rapidly evolving due to changes in income, women’s employment, urbanization, and developments in technology, food marketing, and public policy.&nbsp;These changes, which happen in urban and rural areas, contribute to shifts in&nbsp;<a href="https://cgiar-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/j_leroy_cgiar_org/EeRYxVcWEP5KtwlePVr5NTkBFSO68n5iqq-Fm75ZwnWv3Q?e=yOyNjJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">food environments</a>&nbsp;(FEs)&nbsp;(defined as:&nbsp;“<em>The interface that mediates the acquisition of foods to people within the wider food&nbsp;system”</em>).&nbsp;FEs increasingly promote ready-to-eat, convenient, cheap, and often ultra-processed foods associated with poor health.</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Relevance to&nbsp;Impact&nbsp;Areas (IAs):</strong>&nbsp;SHiFT’s main goal is to ensure&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>&nbsp;for everyone, everywhere through food system transformation, making it the only One CGIAR&nbsp;Initiative with this primary focus. We will start from the consumer perspective and identify innovations to&nbsp;move&nbsp;consumer demand toward&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>, thereby contributing to improved nutrition and health, especially for marginalized populations&nbsp;(<strong>IA1</strong>). Our work also aims&nbsp;to&nbsp;enhance&nbsp;employment and income for poor formal and informal actors and mitigate&nbsp;trade-offs between delivering&nbsp;<a href="https://cgiar-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/j_leroy_cgiar_org/EeRYxVcWEP5KtwlePVr5NTkBFSO68n5iqq-Fm75ZwnWv3Q?e=yOyNjJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><em>sustainable nutritious foods</em></a>&nbsp;(defined&nbsp;as&nbsp;foods that are key components of a&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diet</em>)&nbsp;and achieving job and income goals (<strong>IA2</strong>). SHiFT will address unequal access to&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>&nbsp;and to decent employment&nbsp;and the&nbsp;policies that create/reproduce social exclusion among marginalized groups, including women and youth (<strong>IA3</strong>). As a secondary impact, our work on&nbsp;<a href="https://cgiar-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/j_leroy_cgiar_org/EeRYxVcWEP5KtwlePVr5NTkBFSO68n5iqq-Fm75ZwnWv3Q?e=yOyNjJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">policy lock-ins</a>&nbsp;(defined&nbsp;as:&nbsp;“<em>Public or private policies or decisions which lead to self-reinforcing outcomes, causing the economy or the sector to ‘lock’ itself into a path (dependency) which is difficult to alter or</em>&nbsp;<em>revert”</em>)&nbsp;and&nbsp;on tackling trade-offs will support the transition toward nature-positive and climate-neutral food production, distribution,&nbsp;and consumption (<strong>IA4</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>IA5</strong>).<strong>&nbsp;</strong>&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>High priority in target countries:&nbsp;</strong>Governments recognize the importance of&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets&nbsp;</em>and the need to transform food systems to deliver these outcomes.&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">2021 UN Food Systems Summit</a><span style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">&nbsp;</span>and recent high-profile reports reiterate the demand for food systems sustainability research&nbsp;and for an increased focus on&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets&nbsp;</em>in&nbsp;food system transformation processes.&nbsp;SHiFT researchers have collaborated with relevant stakeholders in most of the target countries and are well positioned to co-define key research priorities and anchor food systems transformation within existing national policy processes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Aligned to shared, multi-funder priorities:&nbsp;</strong>Donors<strong>&nbsp;</strong>increasingly recognize that production-focused initiatives are necessary but not sufficient to ensure&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>&nbsp;and that food systems transformation must include actions to improve access to —&nbsp;and consumption of&nbsp;—&nbsp;nutritious food (e.g.,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.donorplatform.org/homepage.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">GDPRD</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/our-work/programs/global-growth-and-opportunity/agricultural-development" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">BMGF</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bcg.com/en-za/food-system-transformative-integrated-policy-for-sub-saharan-africa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Rockefeller Foundation</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/environment/bioeconomy/food-systems/food-2030_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">EC</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usaid.gov/nutrition-strategy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: inherit;">USAID</a>).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Why science/research is needed:&nbsp;</strong>Food systems transformation for&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>&nbsp;is impeded by the absence of accessible science-based evidence and practical tools for decision-making.<span style="background-color: rgb(225, 227, 230);">5</span>&nbsp;Knowledge gaps range from an incomplete understanding of the demand for&nbsp;<em>sustainable healthy diets</em>; to&nbsp;the constraints&nbsp;in&nbsp;delivering&nbsp;affordable&nbsp;<em>sustainable nutritious foods</em>;&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;limited evidence on food systems power and governance dynamics;&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;poor understanding of trade-offs between goals and incentives of different actors; and&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;lack&nbsp;of tested successful transformative pathways.&nbsp;SHiFT is uniquely positioned to fill these&nbsp;gaps.&nbsp;</p>