Highlights:

To measure global, regional and national food systems progress, this study leveraged existing target-setting methods and developed a benchmarking approach. This resulted in two types of reference points: targets (static) and benchmarks (relative and dynamic).

Global targets: were drawn from literature, on the basis of pre-existing international commitments, rights conventions or theoretical minimums or maximums.

Global benchmarks: For each indicator, we used an unweighted ranking to calculate the mean of latest values (available between 2015 and 2024) for countries within the 80th percentile (for indicators where higher is better) or 20th percentile (for indicators where lower is better). We established these benchmarks at a global level (considering all countries, one benchmark per indicator).

Figures 2 shows which indicators will require substantial changes to achieve global targets (the ideal state). Indicators in red suggest annual changes exceeding 15% (that is, practically unattainable rates of change), with many indicators being in this category for the 2030 targets.

Figures 3 shows which indicators will require substantial changes to achieve global benchmarks (the achievable state). Indicators in red suggest annual changes exceeding 15% (that is, practically unattainable rates of change), with many indicators being in this category for the 2030 targets.

Required progress to reach global targets and benchmarks. Prioritizing development policies, innovations and investments requires understanding the annual percentage change needed to reach global targets and global benchmarks by 2030 and 2050.

There are stark differences between the ideal state (global targets) and the achievable state (global benchmarks) by 2030. This pattern is particularly evident for indicators under the Diets, Nutrition and Health theme, such as the prevalence of undernourishment, where the annual change to meet the target ranges between −35.5% and −62.5% across regions but decreases to between −0.7% and −17.0% to meet global benchmarks.

Among regions, Africa consistently faces the steepest hurdles, requiring dramatic changes exceeding 15–20% per year to meet global benchmarks for 16 indicators, such as the percentage of the population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.

Despite the large changes required, there are some promising findings. For example, to meet the global target for women’s minimum dietary diversity (100% of women, an SDG target) annual changes of less than 5% are required in three of four world regions with data.

Allowing 20 more years to meet the target shows many more indicators with potentially achievable required growth rates (that is, <5% per year), although there remain indicators where targets are out of reach except at very high sustained growth rates like food insecurity and food systems emissions change.