Tracking Dietary Diversity

Time to Turn Our Attention to Quality of Food

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As part of the 2025 Comprehensive Review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator framework, the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted minimum dietary diversity (MDD) as a new SDG indicator. SDG Goal 2, or Zero Hunger, which aims to achieve food security and improved nutrition, consists of 14 indicators, including prevalence of undernourishment, food insecurity, stunting among children, malnutrition, and anaemia in women, among others. In this context, the inclusion of MDD is expected to capture a crucial aspect previously missing in the tracking of progress towards achieving SDG 2 and the broader 2030 agenda. It will be measured for two population groups—children aged 6 to 23 months, and women of reproductive age, designated "MDD-C" and "MDD-W", respectively. As countries around the world lift people out of extreme poverty, policymakers increasingly turn their focus towards diet diversification along with food security. With the evolution of agrifood systems and dietary patterns, monitoring what people eat assumes greater importance. Dietary diversity i