Dear facilitator and colleagues,
Thank you very much for this opportunity to provide feedback on the first draft work programme of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.
Please find below the joint feedback of the co-leadership team of the Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Programme of the UN 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP).
Best regards,
Patrick Mink
1. Does the work programme present a compelling vision for enabling strategic interaction and mutual support across existing initiatives, platforms, forums and programmes, given the stipulation of Res 70/259 that the Decade should be organized with existing institutions and available resources?
Yes, in general the draft work programme does present a compelling vision for strategic interaction and mutual support. However, while there is much focus on the role that governments/countries can play, for example as Nutrition Decade champions and/or by establishing action networks, there seems to be less elaboration on the potential roles for other actors and bodies, such as multistakeholder partnerships, for example with regard to action networks.
2. What are your general comments to help strengthen the presented elements of the first draft work programme of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition?
As the Co-Leads of the Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Programme of the UN 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP), we would like to propose to strengthen the draft work programme by including also a reference to the SFS Programme in the context of multistakeholder platforms, i.e. in paras 54 and 69.
For the reasons outlined in response to question 3 below, the Co-Leads of the SFS Programme look forward to actively support this joint effort of making the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition a success.
3. Do you feel you can contribute to the success of the Nutrition Decade or align yourself with the proposed range of action areas?
We believe that the SFS Programme can make a meaningful contribution to the Nutrition Decade, in particular with regard to Action areas 1 “Sustainable, resilient food systems for healthy diets” and 6 “Review, strengthen and promote nutrition governance and accountability”, but potentially also others.
The 10YFP is a global framework of action to enhance international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in both developed and developing countries. It reports to ECOSOC and the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
The SFS Programme of the 10YFP promotes sustainable food systems through activities at global, regional and national level. It contributes to the achievements of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 2 and SDG 12, as well as a series of issues covered by other SDGs including in the areas of health, biodiversity and ecosystems, partnerships, etc. The SFS Programme has five focus themes: sustainable diets; sustainability along all value chains; reduction of food losses and waste; multi-stakeholder platforms; and resilient, inclusive, diverse food production systems. The Programme promotes multistakeholder projects and initiatives along these focus themes, both at the policy level as well as through action on the ground - raising awareness, promoting enabling environments, and facilitating access to knowledge, information and tools.
The SFS Programme has four Co-Lead organizations (South Africa (Department for Trade and Industry), Switzerland (Federal Office for Agriculture), Hivos and WWF). They are supported by a 23 member Multistakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC), composed of organizations from the following five stakeholder clusters: government agencies; civil society organizations; scientific and technical organizations; UN agencies and other international organizations; and private sector. In addition, the Programme currently has more than 95 partners worldwide.
On February 13th, 2017, the SFS Programme MAC endorsed the Programme’s initial eight core initiatives. One of them – under the leadership of FAO and UN Environment, and in collaboration with UNSCN, CIHEAM, Hebrew University, ENEA, Organics International and WWF – aims to identify indicators for sustainable diets and develop guidelines for assessing the sustainability of diets. This core initiative is in line with Action area 1 of the draft work programme. Another one of our core initiatives – under the leadership of Hivos, Biovision Foundation and UN Environment – aims to develop and support inclusive multi‐stakeholder platforms at local and national level, in line with Action area 6. Furthermore, the SFS Programme has a core initiative that aims to strengthen methodologies and capacities on quantifying as well as reducing food losses and waste (FLW), and to establish a global community of practice on FLW. This core initiative is being lead by UN Environment and FAO, in collaboration with WWF, Nestlé, South Africa (dti), CIHEAM and WRAP, and it is in line with the potential action network “Reduction of food waste and losses” contained in table 1
The 1st Global Conference of the SFS Programme will take place on 21-23 June 2017 in Pretoria, South Africa. With an expected participation of 150 food system experts from all relevant stakeholder groups and around the globe, this conference could offer a good opportunity to raise awareness on the Nutrition Decade as well as for approaching potential partners.
In its resolution on Agriculture development, food security and nutrition of 2015 (A/RES/70/223), the United Nations General Assembly welcomed the launch of the SFS Programme. In October 2016, the FAO Committee on Agriculture requested FAO to strengthen its work on sustainable food systems in relation to the 10YFP. For more information on the SFS Programme, please refer to the programme brochure, and see: http://www.scpclearinghouse.org/sustainable-food-system
4. How could this draft work programme be improved to promote collective action to achieve the transformational change called for by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the ICN2 outcomes? What is missing?
The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires an inclusive and holistic approach, accounting for the interlinkages between the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, in order to avoid silo thinking. Therefore, we welcome very much the food systems approach that is promoted under Action area 1, which takes into account all stages of the food value chain and links the concepts of healthy diets and sustainable diets. However, in para 20, reference is made to guidelines on healthy diets only, which falls short of the multistakeholder food systems approach that is required to achieve the food and nutrition related SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. We therefore propose to refer to “[..] guidelines on sustainable and healthy diets“ in para 20.
In addition to the potential topics for action networks listed in table 1, there may be scope for further topics, such as sustainable diets; sustainability along all value chains; and resilient, inclusive and divers food production systems.
5. Do you have specific comments on the section on accountability and shared learning?
No.
Mr. Patrick Mink