Rome- This webinar will focus on the importance of policy and legal frameworks for the implementation of nutrition standards, and present broad recommendations for their development. Technical experts will outline key concepts and recommendations, and country stakeholders will illustrate how NGS have been incorporated into policies and legislation in their own contexts, showcasing lessons learned as well as the main issues and challenges encountered in the process. In particular, the event will focus on:

• The importance of policy and legislation for improving the nutrition quality and adequacy of school food.
• Why NGS can be a tool to support children’s right to food.
• A human rights-based approach to school food and nutrition policies and legislation.

The webinar will be held virtually (on Zoom) on Thursday, 12 May 2022, 15.00-16.30 p.m. (CEST).

Live interpretation to French and Spanish will be available.

To register, click here  

Agenda

Moderator: Kate Ogden, Nutrition Officer, UN Nutrition Secretariat 

Session 1. Setting the scene: The importance of NGS for adequate nutrition at school 

• Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Division, FAO
• Carmen Burbano, Director of the School Feeding Division, WFP

Session 2. NGS as a tool for guaranteeing the right to food at school: the role of policy and legislation 

• Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, OHCHR: How nutritional requirements at school are critical to ensuring the right to food of children and adolescents
• Luisa Cruz, Legal Consultant, FAO and Serena Pepino, Right to Food Policy Expert, FAO: Incorporating NGS into policy and legal frameworks: the need for policy and legal coherence

Session 3. Lessons to learn from country experiences 

• Doris Xiomara Monroy-Parada, Specialist in Public Health and Preventative Medicine: Translating nutritional requirements into practice: from national consensus to mandatory NGS in the Autonomous Communities in Spain, and the importance of monitoring and impact evaluation
• Nicole Darmon, Director of Research, INRAE: The impact of evidence-based research on the economics of NGS in France
• Jairo Flores, Parliamentarian of the Congress of Guatemala and Regional Coordinator of the Parliamentary Front against Hunger for Latin America and the Caribbean: The process for universal school meals as a legal entitlement in Guatemala, successes and challenges

Session 4. Questions and answers

About School food and nutrition policy and legal frameworks 

Every day, millions of children and adolescents consume food in school, and in many vulnerable countries a school meal can constitute a significant part of their diet and the only nutritious meal consumed. Given its critical role, it is key that school meals and the foods that are available in schools are aligned with children’s nutrition, education and sociocultural needs and priorities. Nutrition guidelines and standards (NGS) are rules and regulations designed to improve the nutritional quality, as well as the overall adequacy, of foods and meals in schools, and can therefore play an important role in ensuring the right to food for children and adolescents, particularly for the most vulnerable.

In 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) launched the project School food nutrition guidelines and standards for safeguarding children and adolescents’ right to food to design a global methodology for countries to define and implement their NGS for school food. The methodology will be accompanied by complementary guidance focusing on key areas that can support the implementation of NGS and enhance their impact.