Agricultural transformation has been ongoing for decades in Ethiopia where the agenda to improve nutrition has also gained momentum. This paper assesses ways in which the government could coherently pursue the objectives of reducing the cost of the least cost healthy diet for Ethiopians and achieving faster inclusive agricultural transformation (IAT), for example by increasing agrifood output, creating rural off-farm employment and reducing rural poverty. The main finding is that pursuing IAT objectives also allows reducing the cost of the least-cost healthy diet. Ethiopian policymakers may consider repurposing the budget for agriculture to pursue IAT objectives as suggested in this paper in order to increase value for public money, not only in terms of agrifood output growth, job creation and poverty reduction, but also in terms of increasing the affordability of healthy diets.

This paper is the background paper to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022.