IFPRI Country Representative for Bangladesh Dr. Akhter Ahmed presents BIHS panel data at the Nutrition Policy Roundtable on Improving Diets to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal.

1. Dietary Patterns and Healthy Diets:
What is Needed to Close the Gaps?
Akhter Ahmed
Country Representative for Bangladesh
International Food Policy Research Institute
Nutrition Policy Roundtable on Improving Diets to Achieve the
Sustainable Development Goal
CIRDAP | Dhaka | 21 November 2017
1

2. Analysis used data from BIHS
 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) conducted
by IFPRI under USAID-funded Policy Research and Strategy
Support Program (PRSSP) is most comprehensive, nationally
representative rural household survey to date. Largest panel
survey.
 4 unique features of data collection:
1. plot-level agricultural production
2. individual food intakes of all HH members
3. anthropometry measurements of all HH members
4. data to measure women’s empowerment in
agriculture index (WEAI)
 BIHS sampling is statistically representative
 nationally of rural Bangladesh
 rural areas for each of the 7 administrative divisions
 USAID-supported Feed the Future Zone in southern
Bangladesh 2

3. Overwhelming dominance of rice in diet
Share of nutrient from rice of total nutrient intake
3
71
57
62
44
78
67
70
52
63
46
52
36
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Food energy (calorie) Protein Zinc Iron
Percentageoftotalnutrientintake
All Poorest 20% Richest 20%

4. Most farmers grow one crop – Rice
4
54.4
20.1
12.5
5.9
3.9
51.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1 2 3 4 5 Only rice
Percentageoffarmers
Number of crops grown in 2011

5. Food pyramid for Bangladesh
5

6. Desirable dietary patterns and actual food intakes
Gaps reduced from 2011/12 to 2015
Group Food
Desirable daily
intake
(gram/person)a
Actual daily
intake in 2012
(gram/person) b
Actual daily
intake in 2015
(gram/person) b
1 Rice 350 495 442
2 Wheat & other cereals 50 31 37
3 Pulses 50 10 15
4 Fish 60 64 57
5 Poultry & meat 40 20 22
6 Egg 30 5 10
7 Milk & milk products 130 20 36
8 Fruits 100 10 35
9 Leafy vegetable 100 38 41
10 Non-leafy vegetable 200 200 187
11 Potato 100 116 106
12 Cooking oil 30 21 26
13 Sugar/Gur/ Molasses 20 8 6
14 Spices 20 7 6
Source a: Desirable Dietary Patters (DDP) 2013
Source b: IFPRI BIHS 2011/12 and 2015

7. Frequency of food groups consumed in past 7
days increased on average
7
7.0 6.9
1.6
1.2
1.6
4.8
6.9
2.7
7.0 7.0
2.3
2.1
2.4
5.5
6.9
3.5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Numberofdayseachfoodgroupwasconsumedin
past7days
2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

8. Proportion of people who have not consumed
food groups in past 7 days declined
Average food consumption frequency hides severity
8
0.0 0.4
43.8
52.0
65.2
4.5
0.8
41.2
0.0 0.0
29.3
23.0
47.4
2.4
0.2
23.9
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Percentageofpeoplewithoutconsumption
offoodgroupinpast7days
2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

9. Calculation of the WFP Food Consumption
Score to measure diet quality
(# of days consumed of each food group in past 7 days, weighted by
“nutritional importance”)
9

10. Household diet quality is worse for the poor,
but quality improved for all
(using WFP’s Food Consumption Score: 0-112)
10
42.3
50.5
55.5
62.7
71.0
56.4
52.6
61.4
67.0
72.7
79.7
66.7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1st Quintile
(Poorest)
2nd Quintile 3rd Quintile 4th Quintile 5th Quintile
(Richest)
All
FoodConsumptionScore
Average FCS
2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

11. Percentage of households with low diet quality declined
(using WFP’s Food Consumption Score: 0-112)
11
55.2
27.9
19.6
9.9
3.0
23.1
25.0
8.6
4.4
2.6
1.2
8.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1st Quintile
(Poorest)
2nd Quintile 3rd Quintile 4th Quintile 5th Quintile
(Richest)
All
Percent
Percentage of households with low FCS (<42)
2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

12. 12
76.8
1.5 0.8 2.0 2.3 1.7
3.8
0.4
73.1
2.2 2.0 2.3 3.9
1.8
3.9
0.6
0
20
40
60
80
Rice Wheat Maize Pulses Oilseeds Potatoes Vegetables Bananas
Totalcroppedarea(%)
2012 2015
Share of rice decreased and non-rice food crops
increased in total cropped area: 2012 to 2015

13. Evidence from IFPRI research in Bangladesh
 Increased agricultural diversity improves household dietary
diversity (Sraboni et al. 2014)
 Increased women’s empowerment in agriculture (measured by
WEAI) helps
Improve household, child, and maternal dietary diversity;
(Sraboni et al. 2014) and
Increase agricultural diversity (Ahmed & Sraboni 2014)
 Nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) training for
women and men improves household diet quality, child
nutrition and complementary feeding practices (TMRI: Ahmed
et al. 2016; A&T: Menon et al. 2016).

14. Policy considerations
 Improve diet quality:
 Develop value chains for nutrient-dense foods
 Promote nutrition knowledge among consumers, farmers,
and women and men
 Add nutrition BCC to social protection programs
 Promote agricultural diversity:
 Reduce risk of high-value, high nutritive value food
production via contract farming, agricultural credit, etc.
 Create an enabling policy environment for the private
sector for agricultural value chains development
 Support women’s empowerment:
 Women’s empowerment in agriculture improves dietary
diversity, increases agricultural diversity, and helps
households move out of poverty (IFPRI 2016).
14

15. For more information, contact: Akhter Ahmed
a.ahmed@cgiar.org | Mobile: 01760744486
Thank you
15