Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on how we might best maximise the potential of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. Please find comments from Australia below. 

 

United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition: Online consultation on the work programme for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition

Comments from Australia

Australia supports the need to focus global attention on the double burden of nutrition and the United Nations General Assembly’s proclamation of 2016–2025 as the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition. Critically, the Decade of Action on Nutrition presents the opportunity to accelerate actions to implement the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action. Australia appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on how we might best maximise the potential of the Decade of Action.

Foremost, the Decade of Action on Nutrition should be used as a catalyst to accelerate actions to implement the Framework for Action, which provides an agreed set of policy options and strategies for Member States to consider implementing in line with national circumstances and priorities.

To achieve this, better coordinated actions across all relevant sectors will be fundamental. A successful Decade of Action will therefore support coherent and strategic alignment of issues within the Framework of Action to bring to life the multi-dimensional nature of nutrition action.  It will be important to break down some of the sector silos that have been hindering accelerated action on nutrition.  It is also important to help actors identify roles and responsibilities, but also to show where collective action across sectors can drive nutrition outcomes and how the various inputs across food and health systems can come together to deliver results.  

The Decade of Action is also an opportunity to encourage and develop international partnerships on nutrition.  We acknowledge the important role that the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization will play in leading this work.

Member States should also initiate opportunities to exchange information and share technical resources. Private-public partnerships, as well as collaborations between governments and NGOs, should also be explored.  It should be recognised that malnutrition has many underlying causes requiring coordinated action supported by strong leadership at all levels. Mechanisms such as the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement may assist in this regard.

The Framework for Action focuses on the need to build on existing commitments, goals and targets. By focusing on how to accelerate existing commitments and strengthening existing mechanisms, creation of parallel or duplicate structures can be avoided.  For the purpose of accountability, we note the Framework for Action adopts the existing global targets for improving maternal, infant and young child nutrition and for noncommunicable disease risk factor reduction to be achieved by 2025. Consideration could also be given to developing an additional set of indicators – including progress indicators – by which development practitioners in all nutrition-sensitive sectors can measure their impact on nutrition and know whether their efforts are likely to lead to future positive impacts on nutrition.

The Decade of Action presents an opportunity to summon resources to drive research and targeted, evidence-based interventions to address the double burden of malnutrition and obesity and its related chronic conditions, particularly in developing countries. Availability of robust data on nutrition is essential for surveillance, policy making, program targeting and accountability.  The Decade of Action should consider how to build the capacity of countries to undertake data collection and analysis. Additionally, where appropriate, the agriculture and health sectors should be encouraged to cooperate in the development of data collection techniques. The cooperation between these two sectors could lead to data that can inform nutrition-sensitive agriculture policies and inform the development of food security policies.  

The following list provides some examples of additional aspects that would be important to consider in the Decade of Action:

-          Promotion of nutrition outcomes through nutrition-sensitive approaches in key sectors (such as agriculture, social protection, financial inclusion, WASH and education) should be a key strategy for achievement of nutrition objectives.

-          A focus on the first 1,000 days is necessary to make an impact on child stunting in particular.  This demands special efforts to boost the nutrition of vulnerable women of reproductive age, along with promotion of maternal, newborn and infant care practices such as pre-natal health checks, breastfeeding and diet diversity.

-          Building resilience to malnutrition – closing the gap between development and humanitarian support – will be an important contribution to the achievement of nutrition outcomes.  Nutrition-sensitive sectors have a large role to play in this.

-          Promotion of the role of trade in improving food supply, which has an impact on nutrition. Research by FAO and OECD has shown that open, efficient and reliable international agricultural and food markets help manage risks and allow food to move to where it is needed, particularly in times of crisis.

We look forward to working with the WHO to implement the Decade of Action on Nutrition and to realise achievement of global nutrition-related objectives.