New York/Rome: The United Nations Statistical Commission has officially adopted a new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator focused on Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) during its 56th session in New York. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have taken on joint custodianship of this important indicator, as announced by FAO today.
This Minimum Dietary Diversity indicator addresses a vital element that has been missing in the efforts to monitor progress in combating malnutrition and fulfilling SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) as well as the wider 2030 Agenda.
The addition of the MDD indicator is one of several significant updates approved by the Commission as part of the 2025 Comprehensive Review of the SDG indicator framework, marking the second and final review within the timeline of the 2030 Agenda.
This achievement concludes a lengthy process initiated over a year ago by a coalition of countries and international organizations, led by Switzerland and championed by FAO and UNICEF, with backing from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The importance of MDD
Understanding the importance of Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is vital for public health. A varied diet is one of the cornerstones of nutrition, essential for preventing malnutrition and fostering health, growth, and overall well-being.
The MDD indicator has been validated through rigorous methodology and will be applied to two target groups: children and women of reproductive age, labeled as “MDD-C” and “MDD-W.” UNICEF will be responsible for MDD-C, while the FAO will oversee MDD-W. The MDD-W indicator, developed by FAO and its partners, is a simple yes/no assessment that determines if women aged 15 to 49 have eaten at least five out of ten designated food groups in the past 24 hours.
The ten food categories include: grains, white roots and tubers, and plantains; pulses such as beans, peas, and lentils; nuts and seeds; dairy products; meat, poultry, and fish; eggs; dark green leafy vegetables; various vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables; other types of vegetables; and a range of fruits.
The greater the percentage of women in the sample who meet this nutritional threshold, the more likely it is that women in the broader population are consuming diets rich in essential vitamins and minerals. UNICEF has also spearheaded a similar initiative for MDD-C.
The FAO and UNICEF, in collaboration with WHO and other stakeholders, have been instrumental in data collection efforts focused on food security and nutrition. This includes food insecurity as part of SDG2 monitoring, led by FAO, and tracking progress towards the World Health Assembly targets such as child stunting, wasting, anemia and overweight, led by UNICEF and WHO. The inclusion of MDD represents the first time that a measure of the quality of diets will be added to this critical information.
“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. 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,” said José Rosero Moncayo, FAO’s Chief Statistician and Director of the Statistics Division.
Lynnette Neufeld, Director of the Food and Nutrition Division at FAO, said: “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. 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 SDG2.”
The MDD-W indicator can be used to assess dietary diversity at the population level, evaluate the impact of programs, inform policies, and set targets. MDD focuses on women and children, two groups that are most at risk of various forms of malnutrition.
A critical step forward
Global and regional trends will be analyzed in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2025 report, due to be published in June, as well as FAO’s assessment “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2025,” due to be published in September. Country-level estimates are expected to be released in the second half of the year.
According to the latest The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, over 2.8 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2022, while new estimates of adult obesity show a steady increase over the last decade, from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 15.8 percent in 2022. According to the latest projections, the world will have more than 1.2 billion obese adults by 2030.
These statistics are critical. However, to design effective actions, evaluate results, and track progress over time, it is important to know what individuals who are vulnerable to malnutrition actually eat—not just what is available in the market. The new indicator represents a critical step forward in this journey.
– global bihari bureau
