New Cost of Healthy Diets Tool provides powerful look at nutrition gaps—and how to solve them

In recent years, it has become increasingly recognized that true food and nutrition security depend not just on consumption of an adequate caloric quantity of food but also on consumption of the right types of food. A healthy diet—which the WHO and FAO define as one characterized by adequate, balanced, moderate, and diverse consumption of safe foods and beverages—is essential in supporting long-term physical and cognitive health, development, and well-being and in preventing diseases and damaging nutrient imbalances.

However, as of 2022, nearly 35 percent of the world’s population could not afford such a healthy diet. In low-income countries, the picture is even more alarming: more than 70 percent of the population in these countries cannot afford to maintain diets designed to support long-term healthy outcomes.

Enhancing the affordability of healthy foods for all, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized populations, is therefore a priority for policymakers and development practitioners with an eye toward achieving long-term food and nutrition security.

To support this critical development goal, the Food Security Portal has launched a new Cost of a Healthy Diet Dashboard.

This unique interactive tool provides country-level and regional data on the cost of nutritious diet per person per day, including the percentage and number of people unable to afford adequate healthy food. Users can compare data across countries, regions, and time periods and dig into how specific food groups (fruits, vegetables, animal source foods, legumes, nuts, seeds, oils, fats, and staple foods like grains) can contribute to a least-cost healthy diet.

The dashboard also enables comparisons of the cost of healthy diets to international poverty lines and income groups. This functionality gives policymakers a better understanding of the intersection of poverty and nutrition insecurity so they can design comprehensive policies and interventions to address both challenges.

For example, suppose policymakers in Kenya want to design a food assistance program that not only addresses hunger but also improves the diet quality among low-income populations. By using the Cost of a Healthy Diet Dashboard, they can identify that over 70% of households cannot currently afford a healthy diet and that the largest food cost drivers are animal-source foods, fruits, and fresh vegetables.

With this information, policymakers can tailor their intervention to subsidize the cost or increase the availability of the most unaffordable but essential food groups. Instead of focusing solely on staple grains, the program could be designed to include nutrient-dense items like eggs, dairy, fruits, or leafy greens—all items that are otherwise out of reach for poor households.

The dashboard also allows policymakers to compare these costs to international poverty lines and income groups, helping justify targeted support in areas where the nutrition gap is most acute.

In this way, the dashboard becomes more than a data repository. It enables evidence-based policy design, supports better targeting of food assistance, and provides a monitoring framework to evaluate progress over time. It empowers policymakers to move from identifying nutrition gaps to implementing practical solutions that address both affordability and dietary quality.

Sara Gustafson is a freelance writer. Sediqa Zaki is a Research Analyst in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit.