Dear moderator,
I have been following the debates in the Forum and I would like, in the name of FIAN International, the human rights organization for the Right to Adequate Food, to support the positions expressed by the representative of PHM, Claudio Schuftan.
In addition to what he wrote, I would like to convey FIAN´s concern on the lack of participatory, transparent and coherent governance of international nutrition initiatives since the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition excluded civil society representation participation, and was recently reduced to the facilitator of the UN platform of SUN.
Unfortunately, the CFS itself, despite some efforts, has been unable to effectively take into account all the dimensions of nutrition into its Food Security and Nutrition mandate, especially due to the non-participation of WHO and UNICEF (and other nutrition related UN agencies) in it, and due to the fact that the governmental participants in the CFS normally come from the Agricultural Ministries and not from the broad food and nutrition area.
We are also concerned that the CFS has not been invited to take a proactive role in the preparation of the International Conference on Nutrition 2, to take place in 2014. How can the ICN 2 discuss issues relevant to promoting nutrition and overcoming the most relevant nutritional problems in the world today (malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, the double burden, NCDs, the role of food publicity for children, regulation of TNCS involved in the food system, etc.) without an adequate participation of the CFS members? And especially who will be in charge of guaranteeing the implementation of the recommendations of the ICN 2, with a dismantled SCN and a non-involved CFS?
We hope the ICN2 preparatory meeting in November 2013, will open a space for these discussions.
To discuss national initiatives is very important but to discuss how to guarantee policy space to the most affected countries, through human rights compliant public regulation of the interference of powerful actors ( among them the G8 and TNCs) is even more important.
Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente MD.MPH.
Secretary General
FIAN International