What can zero hunger do for global health?

Abstract

The sustainable development goal#2 or “zero hunger” aims at ending hunger and malnutrition, and proposes five targets covering nutrition, food security, agriculture and biodiversity. Nutrition is a critical part of health as malnutrition poses significant threats to human health. Thus, tackling malnutrition can contribute to global health throughout many different pathways. This note explores some of these pathways, as well as the interlinkages of the other “zero hunger” targets and global health. Although the links between food security and nutrition and health are more straightforward, there are also bidirectional interactions between the agriculture and biodiversity-related targets and health to take into account when designing new approaches to tackle global health and zero hunger. In this note, we recommend to consider agriculture as a social determinant of health with an important role to play. Moreover, we advocate for a systemic approach that integrates health and sustainability within food systems, as proposed by the EU “From Farmto Fork” strategy.