Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched a survey to collect experiences and good practices in the use and application of the CFS Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).



This survey complements an earlier call for inputs issued in March 2019 and will contribute to monitoring progress on the use and application of the CFS-FFA, both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish and you are welcome to provide your answers in any of the six UN languages. Deadline is the 30 April 2020.

For additional information, please contact [email protected].

While hunger is on the rise at the global level, in Europe and Central Asia, food quality more than quantity poses a problem for many. A considerable number of adults – and children – suffer from one or more forms of malnutrition at the same time, including stunting, wasting, overweight, and micronutrient deficiencies.

Given the detrimental effects of insufficient nutrition on child well-being, learning ability, academic performance, and future productivity, promoting healthy diets and improved nutrition should be a high priority on school development agendas. To this end, FAO has organized a regional workshop to present and discuss school food and nutrition approaches in Europe and Central Asia on 11–13 December in Minsk. The event is part of an FAO project on strengthening food security and nutrition in selected countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, funded by the Russian Federation.

Although educational institutions are meant for learning, they provide a unique opportunity to address factors contributing to malnutrition. Discussions at the regional workshop will centre around a broad framework to guide the implementation of school food and nutrition approaches in the region. Also on the agenda will be current country practices, innovative ideas, and possible future directions for governments, development partners, and donor agencies to support the progress of school food and nutrition approaches.

“Comprehensive school meal programmes and other nutrition-sensitive interventions support physical and intellectual development of schoolchildren; and when family farmers are involved, the programme can help rural development as well,” said Mauricio Rosales, senior FAO project coordinator. “The framework developed at the workshop will contain realistic actions for countries, and will guide FAO and donors on increasing institutional, social, economic, and environmental sustainable school food and nutrition programmes.”

In recent decades, FAO data has revealed improvements in the food security situation of Europe and Central Asia. However, pockets of undernourishment and stunting can still be detected in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Iron, vitamin A, iodine, and zinc deficiencies are rather severe, especially among children. This, together with high obesity rates in all ages, reiterate the need for providing more nutritious and healthy diets.

“A limited number of keynote presentations and generous time will allow for group discussions and plenary sessions, and a visit to a school food production facility should facilitate the development of a common understanding and action on improved school food and nutrition,” Rosales added.

Representatives of 20 countries, several partners, and experts will share their different practices on tackling these issues, highlighting the main obstacles, and exchange lessons learned for effective and practical recommendations on better school food and nutrition systems.

Comprehensiveness is an important element of the project to link school feeding with supporting smallholders and local rural economies. This approach, along with other examples, will be presented incorporating agriculture, sustainable value chains and food systems, social protection, education, and trade.

The workshop follows the FAO approach on school food and nutrition that builds on four elements: enabling environment (policy, legal, and institutional), food and nutrition education, a healthy food environment and school food, and inclusive procurement and value chains. An additional crucial element to be realize through this event is the coordination among government, civil society, and the private sector.

11 December 2019, Minsk, Belarus

Most food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are accompanied by a graphic which expresses recommendations in a visual format, such as a plate or pyramid, in order to facilitate understanding by the general population. However, details on how the proportionalities of food groups depicted are arrived at are often not published, and there does not appear to be one clear way of doing this. Several (mainly high income) countries use formal diet? modelling approaches to develop food patterns or food guides intended to provide consumers with information on how to select the types and amounts of food to be consumed from specified food groups in order to meet the FBDGs recommendations. Such guides are meant to promote a desirable pattern of eating rather than prescribe a dietary pattern. Linear programming is one method used to develop food patterns that are consistent with nutrient recommendations, current eating habits, and if data are available, environmental considerations. Is diet modelling of relevance for low and middle-income countries (LMIC), which often lack data and resources, in their FBDGs development process?

In this webinar, we will explore the potential of diet modelling for LMIC, focusing on the following questions:

• What is diet modelling/diet optimization? What are its applications?
• How does diet modelling fit in with the FAO process for developing FBDGs? (Introduction to the FAO diet modelling package for FBDGs)
• What has been a country experience with diet modelling for FBDGs using the FAO package?

The webinar will introduce the FAO diet modelling package for FBDGs, and highlight the experience of using the package in Zambia.

Presenters:

Dr Rozenn Gazan, PhD, MS-Nutrition

Dr Ramani Wijesinha-Bettoni, Nutrition Officer, FAO

Dr Chiza Kumwenda, Nutrition Expert, FAO Zambia

Please register here to take part:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdPuN5g3fgCxrHX7hQO-n7cNzcQzKSSXl8tkzddW3mNYfmnnQ/viewform 

This is the third of a series of six webinars on FBDGs organized by the Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Team of FAO