Food Systems Dashboard (FSD)

What is the Food Systems Dashboard? 

Dashboards are useful tools that visualize key information and facilitate understanding for complex systems. They present data from multiple, diverse sources into simple, visually appealing graphics. This allows stakeholders to set priorities for action and track progress to see if policies or other interventions are working. However, the effectiveness of dashboards can be limited if they only provide data without any deeper analysis. In recent years, the public health and nutrition communities have used dashboards to track the progress of health goals and interventions, including the Sustainable Development Goals. To our knowledge, the Food Systems Dashboard (FSD) is the first that brings together country-level data across all components of the food system and provides deeper analysis and guidance on how to use this data in meaningful ways.

The Food Systems Dashboard’s three pillars: Describe, Diagnose, Decide

Describe

The Food Systems Dashboard brings together extant data for around 300 indicators to give users a complete view of food systems, including their drivers, components, and outcomes. These indicators come from over 40 sources, both public and private, including United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), Euromonitor International, and cross-country project-based datasets. The FSD is continually being updated to include new indicators, growing from around 140 indicators when first launched in 2020 to around 300 today.

Diagnose

On the Country & Territory Profiles, a country’s performance is assessed for 39 diagnostic indicators that span food supply chains, food environments, nutrition and health outcomes, and environmental outcomes. For each indicator, countries are considered to be in the green, yellow (indicating a potential challenge area), or red (indicating a likely challenge area).

Decide

The FSD includes 87 polices and actions aimed at improving diets, nutrition, and environmental sustainability. Stakeholders can explore and prioritize these actions based on the needs of their food systems.

Learn more at https://www.foodsystemsdashboard.org/