Poor diets are more common in fragile[1] settings where a combination of mutually reinforcing drivers like conflict, weak governance, political instability, extreme poverty, and environmental threats lead to failure and disruption of food systems (GLOPAN, 2020). These disruptions lead to unpredictable food supplies, increased demand, limited purchasing power, price volatility and limited food diversity (WFP, 2020) which can make access to safe and healthy diets unattainable. With broken food systems in place, food insecurity and malnutrition are likely to themselves exacerbate fragility. By 2030, the number of people living in fragile settings is projected to reach 2.3 billion which includes 80% of the global poor and is 500 million more people than today’s 1.8 billion (OECD, 2018).

‘Healthy diets’ are health-promoting and disease-preventing. Healthy diets provide adequate nutrients and health-promoting substances, while limiting nutrients associated with increased risk of disease and avoiding the consumption of health harming substances.[2] However, improving diets in fragile settings is difficult because the conditions needed to strengthen food systems are not always available. In addition to the unique challenges that are found in fragile settings, there is also a lack of evidence on what works with most of the literature focusing only on areas that are prone to, or affected by, conflict, in comparison to other types of institutional and social fragility (ENN, 2024). These gaps make developing ‘best practices’ in terms of evidence-based interventions to improve access to healthy diets in fragile contexts challenging, despite being greatly needed.

1. Showcase some of the successful country solutions being implemented in fragile settings to improve access to healthy diets, offering practical examples that can be replicated and furthering our understanding of the barriers and challenges involved.
2. Renew Member Country interest by engaging country representatives to participate in the event and grow the membership of the Special Project.
3. Raise donor interest from both public and private funders to support the work of the Special Project. 
4. Advocate for increased investment in research dedicated to evidence-based approaches for promoting healthy diets in fragile contexts, emphasising the importance of generating data of interventions across the entire food system.
5. Facilitate collaboration among diverse stakeholders working within fragile contexts, including humanitarian actors, to foster synergies and maximize efforts towards improving nutritional outcomes in fragile settings both through immediate humanitarian needs and longer-term actions to build more resilient food systems.

[1] ‘Fragile’ refers to a combination of conflict, political instability, dependence on humanitarian aid, weak governance, and environmental threats. All of these characteristics can lead directly or indirectly to the disruption and failure of food systems, rendering them fragile. 

[2] This definition of ‘healthy diet’ is from the Coalition of Action on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems for Children and All (HDSFS Coalition).