The webinar emphasized the central role of nutrition in food systems transformation, highlighting that agriculture and development investments should ultimately improve people’s diets and health. The Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) metric was presented, which uses dietary guidelines, food price data, and household income after non-food spending to assess whether people can realistically afford nutritious diets, not just enough calories. Findings show that about 2.6–2.8 billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet, largely due to low incomes relative to the cost of nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods. The discussion also noted that unhealthy diets persist even in wealthier countries because of food environments and consumer preferences. Overall, the metric provides a practical diagnostic tool for policymakers to identify whether diet gaps are driven by high food prices, low incomes, or consumption choices, helping guide interventions in agriculture, food value chains, social protection, and nutrition policies.

Key takeaways from the webinar include:

• Nutrition is foundational to development: Healthy diets drive human capital, productivity, poverty reduction, and resilience, making them central to food system transformation.
• Healthy diets remain unaffordable for billions: Around 2.6–2.8 billion people cannot afford nutritious diets, largely due to low incomes.
• Focus on diet quality with better tools: Metrics like CoHD help identify diet gaps and guide policies across agriculture, value chains, and social protection.