Strengthening nutrition governance in Uzbekistan: Aligning food systems, nutrition, and health outcomes
Description
This policy brief examines nutrition governance in Uzbekistan and argues that stronger institutional coordination is essential for aligning food systems, dietary patterns, and health outcomes. While Uzbekistan has made progress in reducing traditional forms of undernutrition, new nutrition risks are emerging, including overweight, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases. These trends are linked to broader changes in food systems, urbanization, lifestyles, and the growing consumption of processed and calorie-dense foods. The brief highlights that nutrition policy is not only a technical issue, but also a governance challenge. Multiple institutions are involved in food, health, agriculture, education, and social protection, yet the system lacks a clear coordination mechanism and accountability framework for shared nutrition outcomes. Without stronger governance arrangements, policy instruments may remain fragmented, weakly aligned, and less effective. The development of Food Systems-Based Dietary Guidelines provides an important opportunity for Uzbekistan to move from fragmented interventions toward a more integrated, cross-sectoral approach to nutrition policy. The brief proposes a governance framework that can strengthen coordination, clarify institutional responsibilities, improve evidence-based policymaking, and support implementation of nutrition-sensitive policies across sectors. The brief concludes that better nutrition outcomes require aligning institutions around common objectives. A coordinated governance model can help Uzbekistan address evolving nutrition risks, reduce the long-term burden of diet-related diseases, and improve public health and human capital outcomes.