Triple duty actions to address the global syndemic of undernutrition, obesity and environmental sustainability: a scoping review

Triple duty actions have been proposed as a way to address the global syndemic of undernutrition, obesity and environmental sustainability with finite resources, by targeting the three components simultaneously. This scoping review investigated which triple duty actions had been carried out or recommended in the literature. A search of 4747 peer reviewed studies identified 27 articles describing triple duty actions. Information on the action, actors and pathways to outcomes was extracted and assessed. Nine triple duty action areas were identified in addition to those summarized in existing reviews. Despite recent interest in this topic, only six articles covered existing (as opposed to recommended) actions, and many articles were weak on addressing one of the three components, despite being framed as triple duty. Many articles stopped short of suggesting how actions could be carried out in practice and by whom. These gaps suggest that evidence on the explicit integration of nutrition and environmental sustainability in policies and programmes is nascent in the literature.