ROME NUTRITION WEEK
HIGHLIGHTS
1️⃣High-Level Plenary Session - Nutrition Evidence and Innovation for Shaping Agrifood Systems Transformation
Monday 25 May 2026 | 11.00-12.30 (CEST)
Sheikh Zayed Centre (SZC), FAO Headquarters, Rome
This high-level session explores how FAO's innovative systems approach, and a cross-sector evidence base, can accelerate agrifood systems transformation that can enable access to and consumption of healthy diets for better nutrition, aligned with commitments made by many Members including those pledged at the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G) in Paris, March 2025. Senior leaders from governments, international organizations and civil society, stimulated by audience engagement, will explore how dietary and nutrition data and evidence, combined with a systems approach, can accelerate agrifood systems transformation to enable healthy diets and sustained nutrition impact.
2️⃣Data-Driven, Food Systems-Based Approaches to Strengthen Dietary Guidelines
Monday 25 May | 14.00-15.15 (CEST)
Ethiopia room (C-285), FAO headquarters, Rome
This session will articulate the relevance of data in building a broader evidence landscape supporting the next generation of dietary guidelines. It will present the new FAO methodology for developing dietary guidelines considering food systems, the joint FAO-IAEA work on energy metabolism and protein digestibility assessment, highlighting how new empirical data, when curated in big databases, contribute to this goal, and showcase how Mexico has integrated its guidelines into regulatory frameworks. Rather than focusing on energy and protein in isolation, the session will consider how big data can aid dialogue on updating energy and protein requirements in tandem with the latest evidence, how the data can be interpreted alongside food‑system data to inform coherent, realistic, and context‑specific food systems‑based dietary guidelines, and how these can inform policy and regulations.
3️⃣Unlocking Climate Finance: Better Diets and Reduced Food Loss & Waste
Tuesday 26 May | 14.00-15.15 (CEST)
Ethiopia room (C-285), FAO headquarters, Rome
This session will highlight country experiences in integrating nutrition into climate finance pipelines and demonstrate how better alignment, scaling and targeting of climate finance can reduce emissions, improve health, strengthen agrifood system resilience, and improve both the quantity and quality of food. Evidence-based actions to improve diets and reduce Food Loss and Waste can support more effective climate investments that deliver simultaneous climate, nutrition, health and sustainability outcomes. By bringing together evidence, country experiences and financing perspectives, the session will illustrate how more coherent and integrated policies can drive smarter climate investments at the intersection of health, agriculture and environment. Finally, the session will link these discussions to key global milestones, including the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29 September) and COP31.