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Real-time monitoring of imports, national
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“Future agricultural growth can be hindered by worsening soil fertility, diminishing access to land and other scarce natural resources, increasing crop vulnerability to pests and diseases, and continuing population growth.”
In addition, climate change is already having profound impacts on livelihoods in Bangladesh, particularly those within agriculture.
“So, more efficient and resilient land management practices need to be adopted especially in rice and pulse crop systems to prevent further environmental degradation and better cope with climate shocks.”
He said advancements in nutrition have slowed down.
For example, while there have been significant improvements in reducing stunting in Bangladesh, it still affects about one out of three children under five. Early childhood malnutrition increases the risk of disease and impairs productivity throughout the life cycle.
“Bangladesh has made significant strides in addressing food security. Moving forward, it is critical to building on this progress with evidence-based policies for better nutrition and more sustainable production,” said Swinnen.
Progress in the ensuing nutrition security has been slow despite the increased availability of foods, including staples. Swinnen explained many countries have experienced increasing rates of chronic malnutrition, micro-nutrient deficiency, and obesity over the past 10 years.
The rapid growth in the production and consumption of ultra-processed foods has also led to lower diet quality in many countries. These trends have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and the reverberations of the war in Ukraine on food systems.
When food prices undergo sudden and drastic increases, families tend to reduce their consumption of healthy foods and instead consume more staples that are relatively cheaper but less nutritious, according to Swinnen.
“This perpetuates malnutrition and can have long-lasting consequences for pregnant women and young children.”
A former lead economist at the World Bank and economic adviser to the European Commission, Swinnen suggested policymakers focus their efforts on three main areas to improve diets.
The first is scaling up nutrition education, which can include nutrition visits from healthcare workers, cooking demonstrations, social media campaigns, and many other interventions, which can often be paired with other community and agricultural development activities.
The second is government spending, which has an important role to play in improving diets. Nutrition-sensitive social protection measures can help families maintain healthy diets while coping with shocks such as the current food price spike.
The third is policymakers can take action to improve the food environment.
“Governments can opt to mandate labelling and certification requirements that provide consumers with important information on the quality of different food items,” said Swinnen.
“Policymakers can also set regulations that limit the marketing and sale of ultra-processed foods in schools or other public spaces.”
The IFPRI chief pointed out that an important cause of child stunting in Bangladesh is that mothers do not consume enough healthy, nutritious food during pregnancy.
“Efforts to further reduce the problem of child under-nutrition will have to focus on this challenge,” he said, adding that social protection programmes are another important avenue to protect food security.
Swinnen is also the managing director for system transformation of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a global partnership that unites organisations engaged in research for a food-secure future.
Currently, the Systems Transformation Science Group is leading 11 initiatives that address all five CGIAR impact areas: climate adaptation and mitigation; environmental health and biodiversity; nutrition, health, and food security; poverty reduction, livelihoods, and jobs; and gender equality, youth, and social inclusion.
All of these will produce valuable insights that are relevant to Bangladesh and other regional partners, said Swinnen.
For example, its Foresight Initiative will collaborate closely with country partners to provide state-of-the-art analytics and policy advice in response to frequent shocks and the Sustainable Healthy Diets Initiative will identify policy options and strengthen capacity for developing pathways to more healthy diets, better livelihoods, and greater equity.
Swinnen thinks research and innovation will be critical to improving the sustainability of the world’s food systems and improving diets while continuing to provide enough food for a growing global population.
“Our collaboration in Bangladesh and the region has demonstrated this potential and I am excited to see what we can do together in the coming years.”

UN development
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Rising fuel costs have caused “a short-term shock” for countries struggling to maintain basic fiscal stability, according to Steiner.
And they face growing pressure to invest in renewable energy and combating climate change, the UN official added.
“Inevitably, the ability of poorer countries and middle-income countries to significantly expand in clean energy infrastructure... is being affected,” he said, calling for greater international investment in “clean and affordable electricity” for poorer nations.
Steiner said that energy security has become such a hot international topic in the past two years that he expected an “exponential increase” in investment in clean energy infrastructure in the next five years.