Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025: priority actions on nutrition for the next five years

FAO Publications

Here is a selection of titles proposed by FAO Publications for forum participants who would like to read more on nutrition and food safety.

Vision and Strategy for FAO's Work in Nutrition

The new Vision and Strategy for FAO’s Work in Nutrition establishes FAO’s vision and mission for nutrition going forward and provides a framework to guide FAO’s action over the next five years. It sets out a framework for FAO’s future action, which includes enhancing availability, affordability, and access to healthy diets through coordinated efforts of all actors and institutions across the entire food system. It details how FAO aims to support countries in enabling healthy diets and boosting the capacity of all actors along agriculture and food systems to continue producing and delivering affordable, adequate, safe, diverse and culturally appropriate nutritious foods.

Strengthening nutrition action - A resource guide for countries based on the policy recommendations of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2)

The resource guide is part of the follow-up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that was held in November 2014 in Rome, Italy. It aims at guiding countries to translate the 60 recommended policy options and actions of the ICN2 Framework of Action into country-specific commitments for action. This process is done according to the national needs and conditions, and builds on existing policies, strategies, programmes, plans and investments in order to achieve the 10 commitments of the Rome Declaration on Nutrition, under the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025 (www.un.org/nutrition).

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 – Transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets

The number of people affected by hunger globally has been rising since 2014. This report spotlights the links between food security and nutrition, introduces new analysis of the affordability of healthy diets, presents health and climate-change costs associated with food consumption and concludes by discussing policies and strategies to transform food systems.

Browse all previous editions here.

Cost and affordability of healthy diets across and within countries

Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020

Can people access nutritious foods to meet dietary needs? This study estimates that about 3 billion people cannot afford the cost of a healthy diet. It suggests lowering the cost of food production and distribution and utilizing policy levers to improve access to nutritious foods that contribute to healthy diets.

Fruit and vegetables – your dietary essentials

The international year of fruits and vegetables 2021, background paper

The International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021 (IYFV) aims to raise awareness about the nutritional and health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption. This paper provides an overview of the activities that will take place during the IYFV.

Know what people eat: better data, better policies, better diets

The FAO/WHO Global Individual Food consumption data Tool (GIFT) consists of a global database, containing individual quantitative food consumption data from any country disregarding their level of income, made freely accessible online through an interactive web platform. FAO/WHO GIFT aims to be a multipurpose tool, providing information on specific indicators that are needed to inform nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food security policies by improving nutrition and food systems.

FAO School Food and Nutrition Framework

The FAO School Food and Nutrition Framework aims to support governments and institutions in developing, transforming or strengthening their school policies, programmes and other initiatives for an enhanced and synergistic impact on diets, child and adolescent nutrition, community socioeconomic development and local food systems.

The Framework represents a direct response to the international call for improving nutrition along the life cycle and for transforming food systems to be conducive of better diets, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025).

It provides a holistic approach that capitalizes on complementary interventions and the most effective programmatic options to obtain benefits throughout the food, nutrition and education nexus, using the school setting as the center for development.

Nutrition-sensitive investments in agriculture and food systems – Budget analysis guidance note

This document defines a methodology for countries to monitor nutrition-related spending, and proposes three steps for the collection of finance data: identification, categorization and vetting of potentially nutrition-sensitive budget line items for inclusion in the budget analysis.

Stories from Africa changing lives through diversified healthy foods

This publication highlights FAO’s cross-cutting work on nutrition, such as raising chickens in Cameroon and promoting nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Rwanda. These stories show that through hard work, innovation and partnerships, ending hunger and malnutrition is possible.

The nutrition and health potential of geographical indication foods

Five case studies around the world to explore the link between the production processes of geographical indication (GI) foods and the nutritional composition of the final products, and provide suggestions on how to leverage GI foods for healthy diets.

Guidelines and handbooks

Sustainable healthy diets guiding principles

These guiding principles consider international nutrition recommendations and the environmental cost of food production and consumption. It aims to support countries in transforming food systems to deliver healthy diets, while contributing to the achievement of the SDGs.

Food systems and nutrition handbook for parliamentarians N°32

Parliamentary action is fundamental to securing healthy diets for all. This handbook provides parliamentarians with practical guidance to support legislative processes that prioritize nutrition, and - together with governments, international organizations, civil society and other stakeholders – accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Minimum dietary diversity for women – An updated guide to measurement: from collection to action

The minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) indicator is a food group diversity indicator that reflects micronutrient adequacy. This publication provides guidance on collection, analysis and measurement of data, including list-based and open recall methods.

Compendium of indicators for nutrition-sensitive agriculture

This compendium aims to gather the main existing nutrition-relevant indicators that can be used for monitoring and evaluation of food and agriculture investments, and to show which type of investments each type of indicator is most appropriate for.

Food-based dietary guidelines

Food-based dietary guidelines are intended to establish a basis for public food and nutrition, health and agricultural policies and nutrition education programmes to foster healthy eating habits and lifestyles. They provide advice on foods, food groups and dietary patterns to provide the required nutrients to the general public to promote overall health and prevent non-communicable diseases.

Food control system assessment tool – Introduction and glossary

This tool, based on Codex Principles and Guidelines for National Food Control Systems as well as other relevant Codex guidelines for food control systems, aims to assist member countries in assessing the effectiveness of their food control system.

Guidelines for the compilation of food balance sheets

These guidelines have been developed under the Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS), with the aim to provide countries with a user-friendly handbook that can aid in the construction of country-level Food Balance Sheets (FBS) as a tool for policy analysis.

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FAO eLearning academy

  • Home-grown school feeding

    Governments and development actors are increasingly recognizing the importance and value that school meals constitute globally. The benefits of Home-grown School Feeding (HGSF)  programmes go beyond education and nutrition to tackle livelihoods of smallholder farmers and local communities. They also strengthen the nexus between nutrition, agriculture and social protection. Based on the HGSF Resource Framework, this course can help governments achieve their goals and foster a community of practice in home-grown school feeding.
  • Food loss analysis case study methodology

    Food loss is a complex issue, often with multiple and interrelated causes operating at different levels. This e-learning course introduces the FAO Case study methodology for the analysis of critical food loss points. This method focuses on revealing and analyzing the multidimensional causes of losses in selected food supply chains, identification of critical loss points, and recommendation of feasible food loss reduction solutions and strategies.
  • Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) protocols for acute malnutrition

    This course provides guidance to complete the Protocols for the Integrated Phase Classification of chronic food insecurity. It provides step-by step guidance to complete the protocols for each of the four functions of the IPC, and the special protocols for areas with limited or no humanitarian access.
  • How to conduct a Nutrition Situation Analysis

    This course will guide you through the steps of a nutrition situation analysis. By the end of the course, you will be able to identify all the information required to conduct a nutrition situation analysis, know where to get this information, and understand how to analyse it to make sense of the situation.
  • Sustainable Food Value Chains for Nutrition

    This course aims to equip project designers and managers with the concepts, principles and tools they need to leverage value chain approaches to improve nutrition through agriculture and food systems.