- 22/12/2025
Nigeria’s food systems are critical for national development, yet women face
deep-seated gender inequalities that restrict their participation, productivity, and access to resources, significantly hindering overall food security.
Achieving a resilient and equitable food system requires moving beyond genderneutral rhetoric towards intentional policy shifts, fostering inclusive governance, and investing in gender equity across the entire food system.
Prioritise equitable access to productive resources, strengthen women’s leadership in decision-making, enhance gender-disaggregated data systems, and champion community-led social norm change to build a sustainable food system where no one is left behind.
Latest Review Series reveals USD 11 Trillion Bill in Food System’s Hidden Costs, a Significant Underestimation
• A partial USD 11 trillion bill: According to FAO’s latest estimates, food systems cost the world over USD 11 trillion per year in hidden health, socioeconomic, and environmental burdens – an amount larger than the GDP of most major economies. However, this figure likely represents a substantial underestimation of true costs and benefits as it does not capture all relevant negative and positive impacts.
• Health costs are the largest contributor, but micronutrient malnutrition remains invisible: Diet-related diseases, premature mortality, and productivity losses from illness are the biggest drivers of these costs, yet we are still failing to measure the true price of micronutrient malnutrition.
• The equity crisis: Existing research and data are heavily skewed toward high-income countries, leaving the severe burdens in low- and middle-income nations largely hidden.
- 15/12/2025
Global food systems generate significant socio-economic impacts (or externalities) – both positive and negative – which greatly vary across geographic regions, supply chains, and production systems.
In the heart of Nampula, an old market is shifting into something new and so are the lives within it. What began as an ordinary field visit became an unexpected turning point, captured through a lens that witnessed far more than change in bricks and sand.
This photo story follows that quiet transformation: the people who have waited for it, the place that needed it, and the question that emerged and only later found its answer.
- 04/12/2025
Orphaned crops refer to a diverse group of foods, including cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, that have been largely overlooked by mainstream agricultural research, breeding programs, and markets.
Many orphan crops contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals, and protein than major cereals. In soci eties facing a double burden of undernutrition and rising diet-related diseases, orphaned crops provide a crucial bridge. They nourish without harming.
Nutrition education in schools and public health programs can normalize the consumption of traditional foods, while media and culinary initiatives can make them fashionable. Changing perception is just as critical as changing production.
Jakarta moves fast. So do its appetites. Over the past five years, Indonesia’s food landscape has shifted further towards convenience and high-risk options, moving away from diets that are nourishing and environmentally grounded. Indonesia Health Survey 2023 tells the story in numbers: high-fat foods consumption rose from 58.5% in 2018 to 60.7% in 2023; salty foods jumped from 40.3% to 52.2%; and instant noodles climbed from 45% to 51.7%. Meanwhile, adequate vegetable intake (five portions per day) fell from 4.6% to 3.3%.
- 28/11/2025
Global food systems face complex, multi-faceted challenges that greatly vary by context, and their environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts are equally diverse. A comprehensive understanding that integrates these disparate factors into unified, clear guidance is essential for decision-making, including policy measures and industry practices.
Investing in nutrition isn’t just possible, it’s smart. That’s the key message that sticks with us a few weeks after the GIIN Impact Forum 2025, where we organised a session, “Nutrition Lens Investing: A Framework for Action”.
Moderated by Roberta Bove (GAIN), the discussion brought together a diverse mix of development financiers, fund managers, and impact practitioners to explore how investors can move beyond broad food security goals to intentionally target nutrition impact, focusing on the quality, not just the quantity, of food reaching consumers.
- 21/11/2025
This White Paper makes the case for a territorial governance approach that reinforces urban–rural linkages by empowering local actors and enabling their collective agency. Local, traditional, and farmers markets serve as strategic hubs that offer multiple levers and diverse forms of capital for transforming food systems within cities, across urban–rural interfaces, and throughout wider territorial landscapes. Investing in both hard (physical) and soft (capacity-building) market infrastructure, supporting diverse knowledge systems, and advancing inclusive “whole-of-society” governance are essential steps toward unlocking resilient and sustainable food systems now and in the future. With these foundations in place, communities, governments, and sectors can routinely apply best practices and participate meaningfully in decision-making processes that foster a wide range of regenerative, biodiverse food value chains. Such systems create market and food environments characterized by vibrant public spaces; access to affordable, safe, culturally preferred, healthy diets; reduced and valorized food waste; and opportunities for dignified, prosperous livelihoods.
