Cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) broken down by the cost share of the four main food groups
Note: The map presents the percentage contribution of each food group to the average global cost of a healthy diet. Togo is not included as no data are available for this country. Data for Cameroon are included. Source: Bai Y., J. Bouscarat, P. Heinrigs, K. Sokourenko and K. Zougbédé (2023), “Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa”, West African Papers, No. 39, OECD Publishing, Paris.
High costs and unaffordability are the main barriers to accessing healthy diets. In West Africa, urban and rural dwellers are increasingly relying on markets to access food and spend an average of 50% of their income on food, making them particularly sensitive to price and market fluctuations.
More than half of the total cost of a healthy diet is accounted for by vegetables and animal-sourced foods, while fruit and starchy foods each account for 17% of the cost (1). However, the composition of the overall cost of a healthy diet can vary considerably across countries, mainly driven by non-starchy staples. The greatest variations between countries are seen for animal-sourced foods with the middle 50% of values ranging from 19% to 34% (2), followed by fruit (12% to 22%) and vegetables (25% to 32%). Starchy staples show less variation, with the “mid-50%” values, ranging from 13% to 18%. These variations can have a significant impact on the affordability of healthy diets and therefore on nutritional outcomes.
The cost of a healthy diet is heavily influenced by the local context (e.g. agro-climatic and economic conditions, infrastructure, distance and isolation) and variations observed between countries are likely to be as great, if not greater, within countries. Depending on the locality, the cost of a healthy diet is likely to be driven by different food groups. Food prices also show strong temporal variations (seasonality) and underscore the importance of temporal and location-specific market price information for monitoring food and nutrition security.
The observed variability in costs and their composition points to the need for more targeted and nutrition-sensitive food system policies and investments in better food price data and monitoring capacities. Improved data and monitoring will offer a new lens for identifying opportunities for action and interventions in favour of affordable and healthy diets.
1: The cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) indicator reflects the cost of a realistic diet with energy balance and dietary diversity between recommended food groups as well as within them – meaning that a variety of different foods should be consumed within each food group.
2: 19% corresponding to the lower quartile (Q1) and 34% to the upper quartile (Q3).