Nutrition at the centre of Africa’s food systems transformation

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OPINION

By Alice Ruhweza and Meetu Kapur

Today, the global nutrition sector stands at the intersection of aid cuts, scarce resource allocation, the impacts of climate change, and the rising cost of a healthy diet. These contributing factors are holding back progress to improve nutrition. Across Africa, as nations take steps to improve production, economic gains, food trade, and resilience, a glaring gap remains in the very environments where people make food choices daily, with malnutrition of all forms still persistent.

Why? Our current food systems are still not designed or financed to deliver on nutrition. As leaders prepare to gather at the Africa Food System Forum in Dakar from August 31st-September 5th, we must confront a critical truth: food systems that fail to nourish are failing altogether. Our true measure of progress must shift from producing more to nourishing better.

Despite growing more food, many African households remain nutritionally insecure. A farmer may cultivate a high-yield maize field, yet serve children starch-heavy meals lacking vegetables, fruits, or animal-source foods. School feeding programs may scale up, but often procure from large processors focused on volume, not nutrient diversity. These contradictions expose a misalignment. We are transforming systems for outputs and volumes, not for the outcomes that matter most, nutrition and health.

Nutrition must be recognised as the central performance benchmark of Africa’s food systems. But nutritious diets remain out of reach for millions. Over a billion people on the African continent cannot afford a healthy diet. Africa is the only region where stunting has increased significantly this past decade, growing from 61.7 million in 2012 to 64.8 million in 2024, a reflection of chronic undernutrition and more than half of women of reproductive age are anaemic.

Undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies give rise to child mortality and morbidity, impair cognitive development and schooling outcomes, and reduce lifetime productivity. In sub‑Saharan Africa, undernutrition costs governments and economies up to 3-16 percent of GDP annually, with global productivity losses from malnutrition estimated at $3 trillion per year, of which a substantial share stems from the continent’s undernourished population.

In many low-income settings, the cost of a healthy diet is unaffordable, with nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and animal-source proteins significantly more expensive than starchy staples or ultra-processed snacks. Estimates show this cost increase is greatest in Africa, demonstrating a 4.41 purchasing power parity (PPP) for a healthy diet per person per day on the continent.

Household dietary diversity surveys reveal what yield data cannot; too few children are receiving the diverse diets they need for healthy growth. In some countries, less than 25 percent of children consume the minimum number of food groups daily. This is a failure of food systems design and a signal that transformation efforts must be judged by whether they deliver nutritious, affordable, accessible diets at scale, for all people.

To correct course, we must mainstream nutrition across all pillars of food systems from production to markets, policy, and procurement. This means investing not only in specific initiatives but integrating proven solutions into existing food systems to reach communities and make an impact. National agricultural plans should include nutrition indicators such as diet quality and food group diversity.

School feeding programs and institutional procurement must be redesigned to support smallholder farmers who grow diverse, nutrient-dense foods. Infrastructure development must focus on cold chains and market access for perishable nutritious products. And financing must shift to prioritise and include value chains like pulses, leafy greens, fruits, dairy, and small livestock that deliver the nutrients people need.

Complementary strategies such as large-scale food fortification must also be part of the solution. Adding essential nutrients to staple foods like flours, rice, and edible oils builds nutrition resilience, especially during times of food insecurity and climate-driven shocks.

As the continent strives to mobilise $100 billion in public and private investments in agrifood systems by 2035, we must not miss this opportunity to integrate nutrition into the business case. For every dollar invested in nutrition, we get $23 back. The Gates Foundation is committed to advancing nutrition by integrating evidence-based, high-impact solutions into health, food, and social protection systems to deliver the essential nutrients that people need to live healthy and productive lives, while AGRA is working to improve agricultural innovation and adaptation to ensure resilience that sustainably supports nutrient-rich farming.

Alice Ruhweza is the President of AGRA, and Meetu Kapur is the Director, Nutrition, Global Growth and Opportunity at the Gates Foundation