Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative (HDMI)
The global challenge: lack of metrics for monitoring healthy diets
Unhealthy diets are recognized globally as key contributors to morbidity and mortality. Concurrently, the decisions we make about what to eat carry extensive consequences for the health and sustainability of our planet. As food systems and diets evolve globally, the importance of monitoring what people eat has never been more critical. Yet, there is a lack of consensus on what constitutes healthy diets and how to measure them. This omission of healthy diet metrics for global monitoring is highly consequential.
Only by measuring can we truly know,
and only by knowing can we act with clarity and purpose.
Our Mission
In collective recognition of this challenge, the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative (HDMI), a partnership among FAO, UNICEF and WHO was established in 2022 with financial support by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our mission is to enable national and global decision-makers and stakeholders to monitor and achieve healthy diets for people and the planet.
Healthy diets are critical for
achieving global nutrition targets and
the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 2 – ending malnutrition in all its forms.
Our approach: towards consensus on healthy diet metrics
HDMI is committed to building consensus with national and global stakeholders to guide the generation of actionable, fit-for-purpose dietary data and statistics that can be used to inform evidence-based approaches, policies and programmes. We aim to achieve this by raising awareness, developing guidance for healthy diets monitoring, implementing a prioritized research agenda, and facilitating the uptake and use of metrics for assessing and monitoring diets.
Monitoring healthy diets is the first step toward understanding and addressing dietary challenges within a population.
A Call to Action
A new guidance for monitoring healthy diets globally offers a comprehensive overview of the purposes for measuring healthy diets, the types of surveys that are appropriate for this monitoring, suitable dietary assessment methods, relevant types of dietary data, and potential healthy diet metrics for national and global monitoring. Over the next few years, this guidance will be refined to include the latest technical and operational recommendations, following extensive consultations with countries and experts involved in survey implementation and data collection processes.
HDMI invites all stakeholders to join us in this global effort to improve the health and wellbeing of people and the planet. You will be part of a global community committed to improving the healthiness of diets worldwide. Together, we can create a healthier future for people and the planet.
