A Cost of the Diet Analysis in Sylhet & Moulvibazar District in North-East Bangladesh, December 2018

The Cost of the Diet (CotD) assessment in Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts in 2018 was conducted to estimate the potential contribution of Suchana programme interventions on household food affordability. This analysis aimed at assessing the degree to which economic constraints might affect poor and very poor households in Sylhet division in North-East Bangladesh (i.e. Suchana beneficiary households in Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts) from accessing a nutritious diet. The CotD method and software were developed by Save the Children, and the analysis can estimate the hypothetical minimum amount of money a typical household would need to purchase their recommended intakes of energy, protein, fat and micronutrients, using locally available foods. Specifically, this assessment set out to answer the following questions:

• What is the minimum cost of a nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable diet for typical households in Sylhet division?
• What locally available foods are inexpensive sources of essential macro and micronutrients, and could be promoted through programme interventions?
• What is the potential effect of Suchana’s livelihoods and home food production (HFP) intervention on a household’s ability to afford a nutritious diet in the assessment area?
• How might access to various social protection interventions improve access to a nutritious diet by households in the assessment area?