Methodology for the Global Index 2021 now online!

Today, ATNI has published the methodology for its 2021 iteration of the Global Access to Nutrition Index. The purpose of the Global Index is to track the contribution of the world’s largest food & beverage (F&B) manufacturers to address the interrelated global nutrition challenges of undernutrition, micro-nutrient deficiencies, overweight, obesity and diet-related diseases.

All this is necessary because we still have a long way to go before we live in a world where everyone has widespread access to nutritious food and drink that allows everyone to live a healthy and prosperous life. Not one country is on course to meet all 10 of the World Health Assembly 2025 global nutrition targets and just eight of 194 countries are on track to meet at least four targets. In 2020, a ninth of all people in the world is hungry, while a third is overweight or obese. Almost 25% of all children under the age of five are stunted. With demand for processed foods increasing, multi-national companies play a key role in tackling these challenges.

The Global Index 2021 is the fourth iteration of the Global Index after 2013, 2016, and 2018 and is set for release early in 2021. This continuous process not only encourages the sector to improve its commitments, but also enables us, the companies themselves, their investors, and other stakeholders to track their progress over time.

Like in previous Indexes, we assess companies on seven categories.

A significant change is the inclusion of the so-called “Product Profile” in Category B. The Product Profile is an objective assessment of the nutritional quality of companies’ product portfolios in several markets, which was presented as a separate score and ranking in 2018. This time, the Product Profile is part of the main assessment and will contribute 20% of the total score of a company.

Another step forward is the reduction in the number of indicators the assessment is based on, without loss of quality. In order to be more efficient in assessing and engaging with companies, the number of indicators has been reduced from 270 to 150.

We are confident that these and other methodological adjustments will further improve the quality of our assessments and reporting. Like with all ATNI’s work, extensive stakeholder consultations were carried out to help guide our methodology. This was done to ensure the perspectives and expertise of companies, CSOs, investors and ATNI’s expert group were integrated into this rigorous and comprehensive methodology.

To find out more, the full methodology document is available for download below.