Transcription of the Director-General’s Intervention at the Informal Seminar - Vision and Strategy for FAOs Work in Nutrition

Transcription of the Director-General’s Intervention at the

Informal Seminar - Vision and Strategy for FAOs Work in Nutrition

Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 14.30 – 16.00

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this Informal Seminar on the updated Vision and Strategy for FAO’s Work in Nutrition.

I just wanted to say congratulations to you all on the coherent movement, recently in these last days together with the John Hopkins University. It really got some strong reaction.

I would say that is a really good example for us, FAO, together with GAIN and other academic institutions – working together on issues like nutrition.

Nutrition is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), everybody knows that, but how to promote it?

Without addressing nutrition, we will not be able to achieve many of the SDGs. Therefore, we need a justification, we need an argument, and it is more critical that we as FAO know how to work with you to get this strategy done better and get it right.

This strategy should fully reflect the entire Organization’s potential contribution to raising levels of nutrition worldwide as indicated in the preamble of FAO’s Constitution in FAO’s Basic Texts 2017.

FAO’s recognition of the importance of nutrition and commitment to nutrition still remains steadfast.

In thinking of the roots of our mandate, our original aspiration, I recently suggested to all FAO staff to re-familiarize themselves with the FAO Basic Texts. Yesterday, I even encouraged all the Members, representatives, and agricultural counsellors to revisit and relearn the FAO Basic Texts.

This is our broad and strongest consensus on guiding our work and I am glad to share with you some of the wording on nutrition.

When FAO was established, 75 years ago and it was called the Food and Agriculture Organization. They started with food, its basic meaning is nutrition.

For instance, under Article I.1, “The Organization shall collect, analyze, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture”.

Under Article I.2, “The Organization shall promote and, where appropriate shall recommend national and international action with respect to:

(a) scientific, technological, social and economic research relating to nutrition, food and agriculture;

(b) the improvement of education and administration relating to nutrition, food and agriculture, and the spread of public knowledge of nutritional and agricultural science and practice.”

There are more examples if you read through it, but I will stop here.

However, I would like to emphasize the order of the three words: nutrition, food and agriculture. You can see that for nutrition, I wanted to emphasize during my manifesto last year, I said: better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life.

You can see that better nutrition not only means quantitatively, but also qualitatively and scientific nutrition formulas. You have to keep the balance at the different stages, different physiological stages of the human being and different cultures. You have to balance your food with the nutritional formulas that are scientifically evidence-based.

Nutrition should be running through the main lines of agriculture and food. What we eat, we eat nutrition. How to improve our life’s healthy diets? We have to change the composition of the nutrition elements including macro-nutrition and others. From the beginning, nutrition has been at the forefront of the mission of FAO and now it is still more critical. As I said, it is not quantitatively and qualitatively, it is also the formulas, evidence-based and scientifically guided.

Nutrition challenges are now greater than in the past. Many countries face multiple types of malnutrition at the same time. They are affected by the undernutrition or micronutrient deficiency together with the growing epidemic of overweight and obesity. There are more dimensions of challenges than before.

Today, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are faced with yet another challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses in our food systems. Nutritious foods cannot reach all those who need them and many consumers are unable to access safe and healthy diets, and affordable, balanced food.

FAO has a globally recognized expertise across the food system. We have to make our own expertise more deliverable and more tangible to the producer, processor, operator and other entities, like managers, and of course all of us as producers on the one hand, and consumers on the other. Consumers are the final driving force to help us change the food systems. We must use this comparative advantage to support the transformation of agriculture and food systems that deliver healthy diets while protecting human health and wellbeing, and being resilient to the shocks and bio-stress.

Therefore, the Vision and Strategy for FAOs Work in Nutrition is critically important. You know much better than I do. We want to go out to the crowd, to the schools, to families, to all the supply chain production and value chain, and to let all people, not only key players, but also common consumers to understand what real nutrition means for the individual, for the community and their families and for the organizations.

We must have a nutrition strategy that positions FAO as a leader in food systems for healthy diets to raise levels of nutrition and improve the livelihoods and levels of health. Health is our goal, not only nutrition. Together with other organizations, including other academy, private sectors, civil society and other UN Agencies as well.

Excellencies,

The Strategy comes at a crucial time in the second half of the Decade of Action on Nutrition, the beginning of the Decade of Action for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the start of implementation of the FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative.

Looking at the most vulnerable countries in the Hand-in-Hand targeted countries – the small islands states, the landlocked and least developed countries – they have a common phenomenon. In my opinion, they need to improve their nutrition balanced food. You can see, they create a lot of nutritional programs. We must leverage these opportunities and not let the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic offset any gains we have made so far.

Our FAO Nutrition Strategy must be bold, transformational, innovative, inclusive, and actionable.

I also think it must be popular to the crowd, not to keep ourselves in silos, in castles, we need to talk to colleagues, talk to people who understood your scientific or professional issues. We need a social movement to let people realize how nutrition matters in their lives and environment.

FAO recognizes there are many stakeholders that work on nutrition issues around the world.

We reinforce our commitment to partnerships, I have just mentioned this, with groups such as the Scaling up Nutrition Movement (SUN). I think it is a good name, SUN. We should have a nutritious sun, bright, for all consumers and producers. Also, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.

We welcome new collaborations to develop innovations in technologies and in mind-set, also innovation of the business model. That is a way you can really make things happen.

We appreciate your support in the development of this Strategy to enable us to deliver our nutrition mandate and to support countries reaching their SDG target.

I thank you for your engagement and continued support to FAO.

Let us work together and contribute together for the producers, for the consumers to make a healthy world with healthy food and environmentally friendly agriculture.

Thank you, dear colleagues.