Raising awareness of the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator

Since its endorsement in 2014, the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator has come a long way. FAO, together with the European Commission and the German Agency for Development Cooperation (GIZ), co-organized the virtual event “MDD-W: From Collection to Action. Promoting Diet Diversity of Women: Boon for SDG2.” The event mobilized political support and resources for the widespread use of the MDD-W indicator and was the last of three joint meetings on the topic.

Opening the event, Director for Planet and Prosperity at the European Commission’s Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), Carla Montesi, stressed the EU’s commitment to promoting the widespread use of the MDD-W indicator, saying, “dietary diversity is a key aspect of data quality needed to keep people healthy.”

The Director of FAO’s Food and the Nutrition Division, Anna Lartey, explained that “healthy diets are on average five times more expensive than energy-sufficient diets,” referring to this year’s FAO State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report which mentions that healthy diets are unaffordable for more than 3 billion people in the world. She also emphasized the important role of MDD-W data in rapid assessments on the impact of COVID-19 on dietary diversity and the potential which indicators have to help fill gaps in the monitoring of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).

All participants agreed on the need to increase awareness of the pertinence of collecting and analyzing data on dietary diversity for women of reproductive age.

The recording of the event is available here.