Webinar: How to achieve affordable, healthy diets in city regions
Ciara Varley, Anna Lorente Sebastian, Dawit Alemayehu Chekol, Peter McKeown.
A new webinar series sharing the latest findings on food systems research has been launched by EcoFoodSystems
How can we achieve affordable, healthy diets in city regions? The recent namesake webinar from EcoFoodSystems aimed to answer this question. Held on 26th February 2025, the webinar was the first in the EcoFoodSystems research webinar series, which provides an overview of the project’s latest findings alongside insights from global leaders in food systems research and policy.
Hosted by Prof. Charles Spillane, Project Leader of the EU-funded EcoFoodSystems project, the webinar included an overview of our latest research findings from EcoFoodSystems researcher Dawit Alemayehu Chekol on affordable diets in Ethiopian city regions. Following Dawit’s presentation, Prof. Spillane hosted a panel discussion and Q&A with panellists: Ms. Alemtsehay Sergawi Hailegiorgis, Head of Food and Nutrition Office, Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia; Anna Herforth, Co-Director, Food Prices for Nutrition project at Tufts University, USA; and Andrea Cattaneo, Team Leader on the State of Food and Agriculture report (SOFA) at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The affordability challenge of healthy eating
EcoFoodSystems researcher Dawit Alemahyehu Chekol shared findings from his research on the affordability of diets for economically poor urban labourers living in Bahir Dar and Hawassa. His research finds that just one day of healthy eating costs a resident in Bahir Dar 59 ETB of their average daily 214 ETB wage. Similarly, in Hawassa, one day’s worth of balanced, healthy food can cost 58 ETB of the average 169.2 ETB daily wage – over one-third of a total daily wage. With the cost of healthy diets eating into 30% or more of daily wages, the research indicates a need to improve the cost and affordability of a healthy diet for workers in the two cities.
Further insights, discussed in the webinar, pointed toward policy recommendations including a need to strengthen social protection and income support, subsidisation of foods from smallholder farmers, and effective implementation of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s Food-Based Dietary Guidelines.
Key Takeaways From Our Panellists:
Ms. Alemtsehay Sergawi Hailegiorgis, Head of Food and Nutrition Office, Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia, shared some of the policy options available for the government to improve the affordability of a healthy and safe diet for the malnourished in Addis Ababa:
“… The Proclamation of the Government [has] given [a] responsibility and role for the Ministry of Agriculture to increase the production and productivity of safe, healthy and diversified production. To meet this, the Ministry of Agriculture restructured the structure of expertise from federal up to grassroot level. We have ample expertise at grassroot level – that is development agencies – focused on supporting the rural communities, especially the farmers, pastoralists and agropastoralists , how to produce agriculture products in a safe way.”
Mr. Andrea Cattaneo, Team Leader on the State of Food and Agriculture report (SOFA) at Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), highlighted key options and levers from the SOFA diet to improve the affordability of healthy diets:
“The type of interventions needed vary by country. In countries where affordability is a challenge, promoting inclusive economic development should be the objective. … In the short term, nutrition-sensitive social protection programmes can also be effective at improving diets for more vulnerable [people].”
Dr. Anna Herforth, who led the development of the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoAHD) used in Dawit’s analysis, spoke on the best method for tracking progress on food systems:
“The cost and affordability of healthy diets is one of the key indicators that can help track progress towards that target of everyone being able to access a healthy diet. It would also be important to track whether people are actually consuming the diets that are recommended”.
Key Takeaways from the Audience
Following the presentation and remarks from speakers, the audience engaged in a live Q&A, sharing their perspectives on affordability of urban diets.
The webinar wrapped up with these insights, as the audience shared their top priorities for increasing the affordability of a healthy diet for city regions, highlighting the need for more food policies and regulation, as well as increased nutrition literacy and education related to affordable, healthy diets.
The EcoFoodSystems team extends our thanks to the Ryan Institute, University of Galway and the Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD) for their support in running this webinar.