Metrics to analyze and improve diets through food systems in low and middle income countries

Taking a food systems approach is a promising strategy for improving diets. Implementing such an approach would require the
use of a comprehensive set of metrics to characterize food systems, set meaningful goals, track food system performance, and
evaluate the impacts of food system interventions. Food system metrics are also useful to structure debates and communicate to
policy makers and the general public. This paper provides an updated analytical framework of food systems and uses this to
identify systematically relevant metrics and indicators based on data availability in low and middle income countries. We
conclude that public data are relatively well available for food system drivers and outcomes, but not for all of the food system
activities. With only minor additional investments, existing surveys could be extended to cover a large part of the required
additional data. For some indicators, however, targeted data collection efforts are needed. As the list of indicators partly overlaps
with the indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), part of the collected data could serve not only to describe and
monitor food systems, but also to track progress towards attaining the SDGs.