GAIN Convening Paper n°21: Identifying Indicator Needs For Food System Transformation in South And Southeast Asia
- 12/08/2025
Clear measures of progress on food system transformation can provide decision-makers with the visibility to course-correct to realise desired impacts and can help ensure accountability. To this end, there is a need to develop, test, and validate novel methods and metrics for assessing food systems transformation. To ensure that such work is grounded in local food system stakeholders’ needs, GAIN consulted national stakeholders across four Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan) to identify priority indicator gaps for monitoring food systems transformation. These consultations drew from an analysis of each country’s food system transformation pathway, existing indicators, and the results from similar stakeholder workshops in Africa. National stakeholder workshops were held with diverse participants in three of the countries, while stakeholder interviews were used in India. Across all countries, some similar themes emerged, such as sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises, food safety and quality, consumption behaviour, policy alignment, and food system governance. There was a strong focus on policy actions, sustainability, and resilience as crosscutting themes. Women and youth were mentioned as groups requiring particular attention in metrics development, including the wage disparities between men and women, inclusion of women and youth in decision-making process, and youth access to finance and agri-business. The results from the workshops will be used to inform GAIN’s future work in developing metrics and methods to understand and help countries track their food systems transformation.
Delivering for Nutrition 2025 Conference (D4N)
- , Global
South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge. Although there is a strong evidence base on effective interventions to improve nutrition outcomes, evidence of their implementation and scale‑up in real‑world settings remains inconsistent. Success depends not only on having proven solutions but also on systems, leadership, sustainable financing, and accountability mechanisms to support widespread delivery. As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development nears and as South Asia navigates the challenges of climate change, food system disruptions, and economic instability, the need for effective, scalable, and sustainable nutrition action has never been more urgent.
Priority Value Chains for Investing in Women’s Nutrition
- 21/07/2025
Malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a major public health challenge worldwide, and progress on improving it has been very slow, with no country on track to meet global nutrition goals and the number of people affected by hunger or unable to afford a healthy diet rising in recent years.
Utilizing local food and preventing food waste in Indonesia’s School Meal Program
On 27 May 2025, the second episode of Bincang Pangan Sehat Lestari (Talk Series on Sustainable and healthy diets) brought together experts, policy makers, practitioners, and development partners to discuss the environmental perspectives on Indonesia’s school meal program (MBG). The seminar saw active participation, with attendees engaging in panel discussions. Over 30 Participants attended the seminar in person, and over 500 participants from sub national food agencies and NGOs attended it online.
20 June 2025 | The Daily Star
A Healthier and Empowered Pakistan Through Biofortified Zinc Wheat
- 19/06/2025
THE OPPORTUNITY In Pakistan, where wheat is a daily staple, an invisible crisis is unfolding. Over 60 million people suffer from inadequate zinc intake, contributing to malnutrition and economic losses of nearly 3% of the country’s GDP. Zinc deficien cy plays a critical role in stunted growth among children, leading to impaired cognitive development that hampers learning abilities and future economic opportunities.
From Maps to Action Strengthening Indonesia’s Food Security through an Enhanced Food Security and Vulnerability Atlas 2025 with Localized and Updated Indicators
- 16/06/2025
Indonesia’s 2025 update of its Food Security and Vulnerability Atlas (FSVA) marks a transformative leap in the nation’s commitment to building a resilient, data-driven food system. While the FSVA has been updated annually in previous years, the 2025 edition introduces major innovations, including the use of village-level data for over 83,000 villages, expanded sub-district analysis, and the integration of new composite indicators and predictive modeling. These advances enable the more precise identification of food-insecure areas, supporting targeted actions aligned with national priorities, such as reducing stunting, alleviating poverty, and promoting rural development. With these enhancements, FSVA 2025 strengthens Indonesia’s capacity to deliver evidence-based, locally tailored interventions across all levels of government.
Jack bean: A resilient legume to improve ‘tempeh security’ in Indonesia
Did you know that nearly 90% of soybeans (3 million tonnes) in Indonesia are still imported? Soybean is dominantly used to produce tempeh – a traditional food as one of the main plant protein sources with high nutritional value and has been consumed in Indonesia since the 16th century. The consumption of tempeh in Indonesia holds deep historical and cultural significance, yet ironically it currently relies on imported soybean from North and South America. GAIN Indonesia is currently working in 2 provinces on diversifying bean supply for tempeh production to increase resilience of tempeh production.
Indonesia’s Commitments at the N4G Summit 2025
- 09/06/2025
The Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit 2025 is set to be a defining global event, providing a vital platform for countries to reaffirm and strengthen their commitments toward ending all forms of malnutrition. This summit holds global significance as it seeks to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly goals related to nutrition, health, and sustainable food systems. For Indonesia, the 2025 Summit represents an opportunity to build upon and deepen its commitments from previous summits, specifically targeting persistent challenges such as stunting, wasting, obesity, and anemia, while reinforcing systemic integration of nutrition within broader health and social protection frameworks.