Assessing the Affordability of Nutrient-Adequate Diets
The affordability of nutritious diets is increasingly used as a metric of how well a food system provides access to nutritious diets for all. Recent work on least-cost diets has focused on individuals, while most food and anti-poverty programs and...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/819731635963873708/Assessing-the-Affordability-of-Nutrient-Adequate-Diets http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36485 |
| Summary: | The affordability of nutritious diets
is increasingly used as a metric of how well a food system
provides access to nutritious diets for all. Recent work on
least-cost diets has focused on individuals, while most food
and anti-poverty programs and policies target the household
level. Members within households have differing nutritional
needs, presenting the methodological question: how should
the cost of nutritious diets be estimated at the household
level This study develops bounds on the cost, affordability,
and seasonal variation of least-cost diets for whole
households, illustrated with the example of Malawi. When
intrahousehold sharing is not possible to observe, the
bounded approach provides insights into the range of the
cost and affordability, and the extent to which the cost may
vary seasonally. The results reveal that when meals are
shared, ignoring demographic diversity within households
greatly underestimates the affordability of adequate diets. |
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