Message from the facilitator
Dear participants,
Thank you very much for your contributions so far. Many insightful comments have been provided on the proposed Nutrition Decade’s priority focus areas for the next five years. We also received great contributions through the online survey. More than 80 participants from 38 countries from all over the world answered the questionnaire to date, and offered their insights there.
Participants have highlighted the relevance of the aspirational proposals but also important gaps such as the need to enhance “nutrition sensitivity” in programs from diverse sectors and to suggest concrete means to achieve that. Also highlighted were the unequal power relations between stakeholders and the need to ensure human-rights based approaches are adopted, marginalized populations participate in decision making, and the second half a Nutrition Decade becomes a truly people centered effort. Participants indicated the crucial importance of being clear about the social and environmental determinants of health and nutrition and the ways of addressing those, also mentioning population growth in same areas of the globe as the elephant in the room.
Among several interesting contributions, there has also been mention of the importance of fully considering food cultures in nutrition action and the additional work needed on regulations of food marketing, labeling and taxes of unhealthy foods. Many participants also called attention to the fundamental need for good governance for nutrition, including for the effective management of conflict of interest.
I encourage all participants to continue the conversation and new participants to engage in this dialogue based on the several questions listed above and/or by answering the short online survey. We particularly welcome views and perspectives from stakeholders from low- and middle-income countries working at regional, national, sub-national and hands-on at service delivery level on how the Nutrition Decade can bring a renewed energy to the wider nutrition ecosystem in the next five years.
Finally, it was encouraging to see from the contributions received that you are requesting more ambitious actions to improve governance for nutrition to ensure effective and structured collaboration, going beyond the usual call to break down silos and ensure cross-sectoral work.
Yes, we must act together now to improve nutrition leaving no one behind.
Thanks again and we look forward to a continued fruitful discussion over the coming weeks.
Stineke Oenema
UN Nutrition Executive Secretary
Stineke Oenema