Glossary

Academic and non-academic research institutions, as well as professional associations, such as national dietetic associations.

The obligation of stakeholders to answer for their actions and to accept responsibility for them. Accountability ensures that actions, decisions, programmes and policies of stakeholders are implemented, meet their stated objectives and respond to the communities they aim to benefit.

Independent mechanism for accountability developed to set standards and requirements for reporting based on well-established principles and methods. Accountability mechanisms are central to safeguarding reporting compliance and to holding those responsible for acting to account, through active engagement, interaction and verification and tracking of reported information. Such mechanisms provide opportunities to collaborate, discuss, learn, share best practices and experiences and encourage further action.

Any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group that is organised on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, CSOs provide services and perform humanitarian functions, bring citizens’ concerns to governments, monitor policies and encourage political participation at the community level.

A publicly accessible and interactive tool that tracks and publishes commitments registered through the NAF Platform. The tracker is updated as the registered commitments are verified and/or new ones are added, and it will be developed further to add more functionalities.

The third performance criterion assessed as part of the Nutrition Action SMARTness Index. Completeness refers to the extent of clarifications (missingness or inconsistencies) required by the commitment-maker. Goals are characterised as requiring minor clarifications if 25% or less (five or less out of 20) of the SMART ingredients score 0 or 0.5. They require major clarifications if more than 25% (six or more out of 20) SMART ingredients score 0 or 0.5.

A sub-category of the policy action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It refers to actions that aim to improve the consumer’s understanding and knowledge on nutrition, diet and food products and their characteristics. This information is used by consumers in decisions about which foods to buy and eat.

A sub-category of the impact action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It refers to actions that aim to improve directly the population’s nutrition outcomes that are relevant to infant and young child feeding practices, food and nutrient intakes, and overall diet quality (including diet diversity).

See ‘Nutrition-specific’.

Any stakeholder making a commitment outside their own national boundaries, entity or workforce, for example by providing financial or in-kind (non-financial) support or donations, including technical expertise and capacity, to a country or organisation other than their own. For example, a government can make commitments to improve nutrition in its nation and/or commitments to support financially or non-financially another country (donor). Similarly, philanthropies, civil society organisations, the private sector businesses and international organisations can act as donors.

The coexistence of undernutrition (including stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies) alongside overweight, obesity and other diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Different forms of malnutrition can coexist (or overlap) at any population level: country, city, community, household and individual. For example, a country can have high levels of both anaemia and obesity, and a child can suffer from both stunting and overweight.

The first of the three categories of the Nutrition Action Classification System, identifying actions to establish an enabling environment for effective nutrition action across all sectors (including multisectoral actions). They are designed to improve the contextual – social, economic, political, cultural or environmental – conditions within which effective and sustained action aiming to improve nutrition outcomes is taken. They reflect the willingness to act on nutrition and ensure readiness for political commitment, capacity and coordination across different administrative levels and among decision-makers in nutrition and all other involved sectors.

A sub-category of the enabling action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to secure, raise or commit financial resources and investments for nutrition-specific and/or nutrition-sensitive actions.

A sub-category of the policy action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to improve the underlying conditions, such as the availability, accessibility and desirability of food, that shape dietary patterns and nutritional status. As well as the physical environment, this encompasses the economic, political, social and cultural contexts in which people and their dietary options and choices are situated.

A sub-category of the impact action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to improve the population’s consistent access to affordable foods and beverages that promote wellbeing, while preventing and treating disease. This encompasses the quantity, safety and nutritional content of foods and their economic and physical accessibility. The 2022 Global Nutrition Report refers to food and nutrition security to draw explicit focus to quality of food, since it is often overlooked in food security policies and interventions that pay greater attention to access to quantity of food.

A sub-category of the policy action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to improve the activities and actors that take food from production to consumption and to the disposal of its waste, including production, storage, distribution, processing, packaging, retailing and marketing.

The interlinked systems, settings, processes, infrastructures and people involved in producing, processing, transporting and consuming food.

The global nutrition targets set to address the double burden of malnutrition, including (a) the six targets endorsed by the 65th World Health Assembly in 2012 with regards to maternal, infant and young child nutrition (reduce stunting and wasting in children under 5, halt the epidemic of obesity in children under 5, reduce anaemia in women of reproductive age, reduce low birth weight and increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding), and (b) the three diet-related voluntary global non-communicable disease (NCD) targets endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2013 (halt the rise in diabetes and obesity, reduce salt/sodium intake and reduce the prevalence of high blood pressure/hypertension).

Governmental bodies at any administrative level within the remit of the country, such as ministry, municipality or any other national, regional, local authority. Governments may or may not function in a donor capacity.

The third of the three categories of the Nutrition Action Classification System, identifying commitments designed to directly improve poor diets and reduce malnutrition manifestations, related to both food insecurity and undernutrition and obesity and diet-related NCDs. The nutrition actions falling under this category use as 'tools’ the policies (policy actions) already in place in an enabling environment (enabling actions) to improve the population’s nutritional status.

See ‘Nutrition-sensitive’.

Multilateral organisations, development banks, intergovernmental organisations and regional bodies, such as UN agencies and the West Africa Health Organisation. International organisations may or may not function in a donor capacity.

A sub-category of the enabling action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that are relevant to the system by which a country or an organisation (e.g. philanthropy, food industry and health facility) is governed and operates with regards to advancing the food and nutrition agenda across sectors, as well as the mechanisms for determining food and nutrition policy and by which those in control are held accountable.

Inadequate and/or excessive intake of energy and/or nutrients. This includes both ‘undernutrition’ and ‘overnutrition’. Although undernutrition is an appropriate term for caloric and nutrient deficiency (including stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies), overnutrition fails to capture the complexity of poor diets that cause obesity and diet-related NCDs. Therefore, the Global Nutrition Report does not use the term overnutrition, but refers instead to ‘overweight, obesity and diet-related NCDs’.

A non-profit organisation, group or institution that is independent of government.

The Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) was developed by the GNR to enable the formulation, registration and tracking of SMART nutrition commitments in the Nutrition Year of Action and beyond. The NAF was launched in September 2021 in response to the call for more action and strengthened accountability for nutrition by national governments, international organisations and the G7 leaders. Building on and expanding the GNR’s N4G Tracker, the NAF is the world’s first accountability framework for committing to and tracking nutrition action, using comprehensive and transparent methods. The goal of the NAF is to inform, shape and inspire action with independent and trusted data and evidence on policy, practice and financing that result in greater accountability and progress in advancing nutrition globally.

The online tool developed to host the stakeholder sign-up form, the commitment registration form and (from 2023 onwards) the commitment progress form. Stakeholders can use the NAF platform at any time to create an account, register new commitments, access their already registered ones and report on their progress (annually).

Any strategy, policy, intervention, programme or investment intended to tackle poor diets and malnutrition in all its forms.

A novel classification system, developed by the GNR, that identifies the type of nutrition action in a consistent manner. The Nutrition Action Classification System names, defines and classifies nutrition actions based on common principles and shared characteristics. It clearly defines nutrition action areas, allows for standardised reporting and assessment of nutrition action, and facilitates the identification of areas receiving high versus low attention. The GNR uses the classification system to group nutrition actions into three action categories, each further refined into four nutrition action sub-categories. The enabling category is refined into ‘leadership and governance’, ‘financial’, ‘operational’ and ‘research, monitoring and data’. The policy category is refined into ‘food supply chain’, ‘food environment’, ‘consumer knowledge’ and ‘nutrition care services’. The impact category is refined into ‘diet’, ‘food and nutrition security’, ‘undernutrition’ and ‘obesity and diet-related NCDs’.

A novel ranking system, developed by the GNR, to assess and report on the SMARTness of committed nutrition action in a consistent and standardised manner. The Index ranks commitment goals into four levels of SMARTness: high, upper moderate, lower moderate and low. The GNR uses the Index to rank the SMARTness of each goal by jointly evaluating three performance criteria: SMARTness score, trackability (trackable, not trackable) and completeness (minor clarifications, major clarifications). The SMARTness Index is not an exclusion criterion for the commitments.

A novel scoring system, developed by the GNR, and the first performance criterion assessed as part of the Nutrition Action SMARTness Index. The SMARTness score provides a numerical value for each commitment goal by evaluating whether stakeholders have provided and clearly described each of the 20 essential SMART criteria (ingredients obtained through standardised data fields in the commitment registration form). These 20 ingredients have been mapped across the five SMART dimensions: Specific (seven ingredients), Measurable (five ingredients), Achievable (four ingredients), Relevant (two ingredients) and Time-bound (two ingredients). Each ingredient can receive a score of 1 (if clearly provided), 0.5 (if unclear) or 0 (if missing). The dimension score is the average of the ingredients’ scores and the overall SMARTness score is the sum of the dimension scores (ranging from 0 to 5, 5 indicating a perfect score). To be used in the Nutrition Action SMARTness Index, the overall SMARTness score of each goal is grouped under one of these three tiers: <3.5; <4.5 and ≥3.5; ≥4.5.

A sub-category of the policy action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes processes, interventions and policies in public or private health systems aimed at preventing or improving nutrition and health outcomes within and outside the health system (e.g. community interventions).

The intent and pledge to address poor diets and malnutrition in all its forms through SMART nutrition actions.

A nutrition commitment might have one or more measurable goals. A goal is what the commitment-maker is committing to achieve, tracked by the primary indicator specified in the registration form (to assess progress made). The goals should be nutrition-related, either nutrition-specific or nutrition-sensitive. Each nutrition-specific and/or nutrition-sensitive goal should be listed separately to facilitate tracking and reporting. Some examples of goals are: to reduce stunting in children under 5 years of age, to reduce anaemia in women of reproductive age, to design a national nutrition action plan, to invest US$500 million on nutrition-specific interventions, to establish a regulatory body for nutrition, and to increase the national budget dedicated to nutrition.

A government, civil society and private industry initiative to support action on malnutrition. It aims to generate, guide and coordinate nutrition commitments and actions.

Actions or policies that target the underlying factors, systems and institutions that affect nutrition status and outcomes, such as education, agriculture, social protection, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), infectious disease control and reproductive health. Nutrition-sensitive actions do not have improved nutrition as the primary objective but can reduce the causes and manifestations of malnutrition and increase the scale and effectiveness of nutrition-specific interventions. To be considered nutrition-sensitive, actions must include specific references to nutrition outcomes or activities.

Actions or policies specifically designed to resolve or prevent defined nutrition issues. These aim to address the more immediate determinants of nutrition and health, such as improving infant and young child feeding practices, food and nutrient intakes, and nutrition-related health outcomes.

The N4G Year of Action (hereinafter referred to as the Nutrition Year of Action) was a year-long effort to continue the momentum to tackle malnutrition in the lead up to the Tokyo N4G Summit that took place on the 7–8 December 2021. The Nutrition Year of Action was launched on 14 December 2020 via a virtual event hosted by the Governments of Canada, Bangladesh and Japan (the Tokyo N4G Summit organiser).

A sub-category of the impact action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions aiming to directly reduce obesity and NCDs in the population. Overweight (body mass index ≥25 and <30) and obesity (body mass index ≥30) are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. NCDs are non-infectious chronic diseases that last a long time, progress slowly, and are caused by a combination of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors including lifestyle/behavioural, environmental, physiological and genetic factors. There are four main types of NCDs: cardiovascular disease (e.g. coronary heart disease, stroke), diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease. Obesity is both a chronic disease and a risk factor for other NCDs. We refer to NCDs related to diet (or nutrition) as ‘diet-related NCDs’. These are mostly obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and specific cancer types.

A sub-category of the enabling action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to support and enhance infrastructure and capacity development across different sectors (e.g. food supply chain, health systems), including human resources, facilities, equipment and training.

Any non-governmental philanthropic and charitable entity.

The second of the three broad categories of the Nutrition Action Classification System, referring to strategies, policies, interventions or programmes that aim to improve nutrition outcomes both directly and indirectly. Having built an enabling environment for nutrition, this category reflects the scaling up of nutrition efforts through committing to nutrition policy actions. Such actions are generally population-based strategies with a broad reach that are crucial complements to individual-based efforts.

The primary indicator that will be used to measure a commitment goal and report on its progress. For example, for the goal ‘to reduce stunting among children under 5 years of age’, the primary indicator is ‘prevalence (%) of stunted children under 5 years of age’. In addition to the name and unit for the indicator, stakeholders need to provide its baseline value (and the year this value was measured) and the target value (what they are committing to achieve by the end of the commitment period).

An organisation that is not owned or operated by the government and is constituted for profit. This includes any individuals, institutions, organisations, associations, coalitions and corporate philanthropic foundations which represent private sector interests, even if any commercial activity is not directly connected.

Stakeholders commit to report annually on the progress made towards their commitments through the NAF Platform (starting in 2023). Stakeholders will be able to access their account and complete the progress assessment survey (to be developed) for each of the commitments they have registered. The GNR will accordingly review, assess and publish the reported progress, further celebrating success and identifying gaps in action.

A sub-category of the enabling action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions that aim to improve nutrition research and innovation and nutrition monitoring/surveillance, including tracking of financial resources invested in nutrition, to enable nutrition accountability through better data, monitoring and reporting.

The SUN Movement, led by countries, is devoted to support members’ commitments and accountability around action on malnutrition.

SMART criteria are used to develop Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound nutrition commitments. For each of these five dimensions, specific information (ingredients) were identified and are collected for each commitment goal.

People and organisations with a vested interest in the policy being promoted or affected by a common action and decision. They are typically defined as a group based on type, including governments, philanthropies, international organisations, civil society organisations, private sector and academia.

A set of integrated goals, targets and indicators, agreed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, for the achievement of socially, economically and environmentally sustainable development.

The Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, hosted by the Government of Japan in Tokyo, took place on the 7–8 December 2021. The summit’s vision and roadmap call to integrate nutrition into universal health coverage, build climate-smart food systems that promote healthy diets and nutrition and ensure livelihoods of producers, and address malnutrition effectively in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

The second performance criterion assessed as part of the Nutrition Action SMARTness Index. Trackability assesses whether the six ingredients used to determine whether progress towards meeting the commitment goal can be tracked are available and clearly described. These ingredients are: goal description, name and unit of primary indicator, baseline level (value) of indicator, target level of indicator, start date of goal and end date of goal. Goals are characterised as trackable if all six ingredients are available and clearly described and not trackable if at least one ingredient is missing or unclear.

A sub-category of the impact action category of the Nutrition Action Classification System. It includes actions aiming to directly reduce undernutrition-related outcomes in the population. Undernutrition is a diet-related condition resulting from insufficient food intake to meet needs for energy and nutrients. It includes being underweight, too short (stunted) or too thin (wasted) for age or height, or deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). Being undernourished means suffering from undernutrition.

The process the GNR follows to contact commitment-makers and obtain clarifications on data provided and/or missing data. The aim of the verification process is to help stakeholders improve the formulation of their existing commitments, and as such their SMARTness. This process does not involve verifying the self-reported information against other sources (e.g. commitment costs, indicator values), assessing compliance or confirming that the nutrition actions registered are evidence based and align with national priorities and/or internationally accepted standards.