Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa
The Sahel and West Africa region is facing a serious food and nutrition security crisis
with high rates of acute malnutrition, combined with high rates of malnourishment
and over-nourishment – the “triple burden of malnutrition”. Poor-quality diets are
the root of all forms of malnutrition, as well as common non-communicable diseases,
and are responsible for an estimated one in five adult deaths globally. The high cost
of food is a key barrier to accessing a healthy diet. Even before the recent global
inflation in food prices, West Africa’s food prices were 30%-40% higher than other
regions in the world of comparable income levels. The paper analyses the costs of
healthy diets in 17 countries in the Sahel and West Africa and which food groups drive
up costs. The observed high cross-country variability in costs and cost composition
points to a need for more targeted and nutrition-sensitive food system policies as
well as the need to invest in better food price data and monitoring capacities.
Available from July 31, 2023Also available in: French
In series:West African Papersview more titles