Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

English translation below

El Decenio de las Naciones Unidas de Acción sobre la Nutrición es la gran oportunidad que se tiene actualmente para colocar a la Nutrición en una posición prioritaria en los países. La Nutrición como la Seguridad Alimentaria deben de buscarse los mecanismos para posicionarlos en el más alto nivel político. Deberían buscarse fuentes de financiamiento para fortalecer estos temas, ya sea asignando un porcentaje de las leyes existentes para realizar acciones concretas en nutrición. Es importante que las diferentes agencias cooperantes apoyen estos temas de manera coordinada y articulada con los países para evitar duplicidad de esfuerzos. Todos los movimientos e iniciativas en nutrición y seguridad alimentaria deben trabajar más articuladamente para que se potencialicen esos esfuerzos.

Es importante que se conozca por parte de los tomadores de decisiones de  los países que la inversión en nutrición puede brindar muchos ahorros económicos a los países para que esto sea un tema de mayor interés para los politicos y gobernantes.

The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition is the great opportunity we have now to put nutrition high on the agenda in the countries. We must seek ways to position both Nutrition and Food Security at the highest political level. Funding should be sought to strengthen these issues, by allocating a percentage of existing laws to take concrete action in nutrition. It is important that the various cooperating agencies support these issues in a coordinated and articulated manner with countries, to avoid duplication of efforts. All actions and initiatives on food security and nutrition should work with better coordination, to ensure that these efforts are reinforced.

It is important that decision makers are aware that investing in nutrition can result in significant economic savings for the countries. Hence, this should be a topic of great interest for politicians and rulers.

English translation below

La nutrición es vital, ya que condiciona el potencial de desarrollo socio-economico de un pueblo o estado; ademas el crecimiento, aprendizaje, condición fisica y mental de todas las personas a lo largo de su vida. En nuestro Estado plurinacional de Bolivia se trazó la meta de poner fin a la pobreza y el hambre declarando el derecho a la alimentacion adecauda y la lucha de la SOBERANIA Alimentaria, la cual establece ejes estartegicos que binculan la producción de alimentos, la buena nutrición, el acceso al agua, entre otros.

En el mundo se vive una crisis aliemntaria que es causada por la degradación y la explotación excesiva de las areas productivas de los alimentos por un lado, el monopolio en la comercializacion de semillas (MONSANTO que paso a manos BAYER) acompañada de la especulacion de insumos agricolas en el precio de los alimentos.

Relacionado a la Salud y a la Nutricion el pésimo consumismo de alimentos procesados causados por las grandes emprezas transnacionales provocando enfermedades metabólicas dentro de una obesidad bien marcada y una desnutrición que no se erradica, sin embargo estos espacios nos ayudan a abrir grandes oportunidades para fortalecer ideas para construir una sociedad diferente.

Tenemos que fortalecer la voz de la conciencia con un aspecto mas critico por todo el daño caudsado a la naturaleza (la madre Tierra) y a nosotros mismos al tener un regimen alimentario totalmente inadecuado impulsado por las grandes empresas (Nestlé) fortalecidas por la publicidad que por las diferentes vias llegan a nuestro hogares; para hacer realidad estos cambios nosotros debemos conducir la economia y los gobiernos deben adoptar politicas de servicio a favor de los pueblos, distribuir la riqueza para erradicar la pobreza, concevir el desarrollo de manera integral con una universalización de los servicios basicos principalmente en las areas rurales, efectivisar los derechos colectivos y ampliar la democracia mas alla del ambito de las instituciones politicas. y finalmente el compromiso de todos y de cada uno de nosotros como funcionarios publicos, privados, individuales y colectivos, principalmente en la toma de desiciones hacia el objetivo de todos del Vivir bien. 

Nutrition is vital as it determines the socio-economic development potential of a country, as well as growth, learning and physical and mental condition of all people throughout their life. In our Plurinational State of Bolivia the goal of ending poverty and hunger was set by proclaiming the right to adequate food and the strategy to achieve food SOVERIGNITY linking food production, adequate nutrition and access to water, among others.

There is a global food crisis caused by the degradation and overexploitation of food production, a monopoly on the marketing of seeds (MONSANTO is now owned by BAYER) and the speculation of agricultural inputs in food prices.

Regarding health and nutrition, the disastrous consumption of processed food, fostered by large transnational corporations, leads to metabolic diseases and obesity and prevents the eradication of undernutrition. However, these forums offer great opportunities to reinforce the ideas to build a different society.

We need to strengthen our self-awareness and take a more critical approach: by having a completely inadequate diet, driven by large companies (Nestle) -supported in advertisements reaching our homes through different channels-, we are damaging nature (Mother Earth) and ourselves. To turn the tide, we must drive the economy, and governments must adopt public policies targeting the population, distribute wealth to eradicate poverty, take a holistic approach to development by guaranteeing basic services (mostly in rural areas), fulfil collective rights and extend democracy beyond political institutions. And finally, we need our commitment as public officials, private employees, individuals or groups, to make decisions aimed at living better.

First of all thank United Nations for the Decade of Action on Nutrition and for for the opportunity to express our views. In India, poverty eradication is our major challenge. The Article 47 of the Constitution of India states that, “the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people and improvement in public health. We have National Mission on Sustainable agriculture (NMSA) under National Action plan on climate change, and National Food Security Mission (NFSM) as the key missions to ensure food security. However our nutrition program also needs to be carried out in a mission/campaign mode as the “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition. Despite having  National Pulses Development Project (NPDP) and National Food Security Mission  for pulses (NFSM-P) Even though we Have  Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) since 1975 and national coverage of the mid-day meal scheme since 1995,  the efficacy of this programmes needs to be frequently revisited through  time tested monitoring and evaluation techniques through multi-sectoral coordination. As in today’s world food consumptions pattern has changed, hence Policy level interventions such as providing tax benefits to restaurant that cater focused attention on nutritional stuffs will help in  larger reachability and meeting  objectives of UN-DAN.

Thank you Christine Campeau and the UNSCN for starting this discussion. 

I expect to witness increased domestic and donor funding for nutrition, and with these, increased accountability. I also expect to see more concerted engagement by State and Non-State actors. Increased funding and accountability will facilitate effective delivery of nutrition services be nutrition specific or nutrition sensitive. Increased participation will spread the reach on nutrition services; even in the hard to reach areas that are usually underserved. 

Aspirations that are not backed up by adequate funding and competent human resources to roll out necessary activities are often unattainable. For me, I think it will be critical to mobilise funds at global and national level. Much needs to be done in Uganda but a move by the government to increase funding for health and nutrition and also employ key persons specifically for nutrition will go a long way in augmenting other services. Funding for nutrition can be improved through public private partnerships, engagement of different stakeholders, minising duplication of activities, improved transparency and accountability by all actors.

All actors State and Non-State have roles to play. Probably delineating roles by the different actors and then undertaking advocacy aimed at holding each actor to account may improve the quality of commitments.

English translation below

La cote d'ivoire  est  un pays agricole  par excellence malheureusement  l'accent est plutot mis sur les cultures de rente, pour contribuer de  efficace a l'eradication de la faim et l'elimination de toutes formes  de malnutrition  dans la decennie a venir elle doit :

1. Mettre un accent particulier sur la production de la culture vivriere,
2. Reduire progressivement  l'importation  des produits cerealiers  notamment du riiz, dont l'importation fait sortir  d'enormes devises  et investir davantage  dans le vivrier,
3. Regler en  amont  l'acces aux terres cultivables,
4. Mettre en place des mesures d'incitation a la production du vivrier,
5. Reduire drastiquement la depense de l'exterieur en ce qui concerne les produits de grande consommation,
6. Mettre en place une veritable politique de transformtion et de conservation de nos produits agricoles,
7. Lutter efficacement contre la problematique endemique de la vie chere par des mecanismes innovants.

Ivory Coast is, above all, an agricultural country, where unfortunately the production focuses mainly on cash crops; thus in order to contribute effectively to the eradication of hunger and the removal of all forms of malnutrition in the next decade, it is necessary to:

1. Introduce a especial emphasis on the production of food crops,

2. Gradually reduce the imports of cereal products, in particular rice, the import of which costs an enormous amount of foreign exchange, and to invest more on food crop production,

3. Regulate upstream (from customers to suppliers) the access to arable land,

4. Set up incentives for the production of food crops,

5. Drastically reduce external expenditure on mass-consumption products,

6. Implement an genuine policy aiming at the transformation and conservation of our agricultural products,

7. Effectively fight against the endemic problem of the high cost of living by means of innovative mechanisms.

It is important to invest more on research and targeted interventions to achieve global targets. Especially multi country studies to explore different approaches to find out feasibility of implementation of targeted interventions  in different settings. Uses of locally available food items to improve practices and to improve food based approaches rather than supplementation should be explored more and more which will help to develop Best practice models in different regions and to sustain the systems. 

Dear Christine,

Thank you for the opportunity to share my views. To best maximise the potential of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition there must be a simultaneous focus on eradicating corruption. This is the most critical activity that needs to be included in the Work Programme. Without this simultaneous fight against corruption all efforts will be significantly diminished to say the least.

Thank you,

JC Wandemberg Ph.D.

This is a great start to the discussion. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. I see a number of themes emerging.

One is the fact that policy decisions need to be evidence based. Linked to this is the importance of connecting decision makers with the academic community, empowering local institutions to be agents of change. Examples of academic groups working to make that connection include the Global Nutrition Report and its Independent Expert Group, International Union of Nutritional Sciences and World Public Health Nutritionists Association. The value of disaggregated data and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms were underlined in order to ensure that the nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions are having the desired impact and reach the most marginalized communities and households.

A strong case was made for rights based policies. As Pat Vanderkooy, Dietitian of Canada pointed out, it is our shared public responsibility to protect the environment and human rights “with dignity and equity, not by charity”. We need to raise awareness about the importance of good nutrition through broad-based campaigns with target groups ranging from primary school curriculums to education of the elderly. Civil society actors continue to be the biggest advocates for nutrition but we all have a role to play. The more informed people are, the better equipped they are to organize, mobilize and work with their governments and businesses towards the necessary changes in their food systems and to safeguard their rights.

There have also been some references on the need to build the economic case for investing in nutrition. According to the 2015 Global Nutrition Report, every US $1 spent on high impact nutrition actions such as exclusive breast-feeding yield at least US $16 in return. This support can be catalyzed by foreign assistance but, ultimately, nutrition needs to be a national priority supported by domestic finances to ensure long-term, sovereign growth. Thomas Herlehy, Independent Agricultural Consultant expressed it well when he wrote: “future economic development depends so much on future generations and their ability to lead healthy lives, contributing to the growth of the economy and making intellectual contributions to solve local problems”.

The importance of working together has also been emphasized. The GTSA (Groupe de Travail sur la Sécurité Alimentaire, [Food Security Working Group]) in Cameroon and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement were mentioned as success stories that demonstrate the benefits of working across sectors and stakeholder groups towards a coordinated response to malnutrition.

Moving forward, I’m very interested to hear more about what you see as the roles and responsibilities of the various actors, both duty bearers and right holders.  How do you think we can accelerate and improve the quality of commitments from the various actors to address all forms of malnutrition and how you see these activities being funded? Comments are of course welcome on all aspects and expectations for UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.

Thank you again for the thoughtful contributions, and I look forward to continuing the conversation. 

I would first of all like to applaud the United Nations for the Decade of Action on Nutrition. I expect to see a huge difference in the way malnutrition is fought globally, regionally and country-wise because with the engaged and “in-your-face” backing of the UN in the struggle to do away with malnutrition, I believe most governments (especially those that weren’t involved as much before) will be more open to considering taking part in interventions that show participation in this Decade of Action on Nutrition. Granted it might just be for show, but that will still be better than no commitment or participation at all.
The activities I believe require acceleration and taking into serious account especially in my country:
• Commitment (/action) to implementing policies put in place. Uganda has of the best written policies but implementation is minimal, at best, and non-existent, most times. Holding governments accountable will go a very long way in ensuring we see some action.
• Right information in the right hands: Nutrition has received some good publicity of late but unfortunately the information is mostly in the hands of those who are already aware. Also the public is very skeptical about the little that has leaked out to them. Communication tactics that simplify the information passed but at the same time pass on information relevant to the people to which the messages are being passed. This concept of generalized information needs to change especially for countries like Uganda where certain individuals use the platforms to pass along information that doesn’t work for everyone.
• Urbanization, increasing income, growing populations and climate change: we tend to focus a lot on the “old” issues: poverty, diseases, poor sanitation and so on. The new problems are not being put into contest or they are being totally ignored. While making policies during this decade of action, we have to put into account these problems of the 21st century in catering to how we will see about the future diets.

Intersectoral corllaboration and cordination is key in efforts to end malnutrition in sector.I would like to see more engagement with not just ministry of Health but all relevant ministries,civil organisations and the private sector coming together to address all issues related to Food Insecurity in Kenya.