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The main objective of the Second FAO Africa Regional Nutrition Coordination and Programming Consultation meeting was to improve the coordination of FAO’s Nutrition interventions in particular mainstreaming nutrition into agriculture policies, programmes and investment plans and jointly reinforce technical capacity in advancing nutrition sensitive programming through multi-sectoral strategies. It was also the opportunity to discuss the Post ICN-2 agenda for Africa, the Malabo Declaration and the CAADP Nutrition Initiative in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) being implemented, jointly by FAO and NPCA/NEPAD.

This second regional nutrition consultation brought together close to 60 Nutrition Experts from 32 country, sub-regional and regional offices, and FAO Head Quarters.

This report highlights the outcomes of the three-day deliberations of the consultation with key recommendations and next steps. A book of abstracts has been compiled for all the different presentations and poster session of the consultation.

Expected results

The expected outputs included the following:

• Clear understanding of the Nutrition challenges and food systems in Africa
• Nutrition officers and focal points were sensitized on ICN-2 follow-up in relation to CAADP and the

Malabo Declaration/implementation strategy and roadmap with linkages to FAO country programming frameworks (CPFs)

• Clarified role of FAO in the implementation of the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (ARNS)
• Nutrition Officers and Focal Points were equipped with key knowledge, tools, lessons learnt on priority areas relevant to FAO’s Nutrition programming (including cross cutting themes: social protection, gender, school nutrition and food safety)
• Reinforced team-work and coordination for delivering nutrition sensitive policies, programmes and investment plans that are directly in line with FAO’s institutional strategic objectives (SOs)
• Strategic approach to strengthening coordination and partnerships on nutrition at all levels
• Improved strategic engagement by FAO Nutrition Staff with REACH mechanisms and support to government on Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) processes with agriculture-nutrition linkages, for governments to adequately capture these in their planning and implementation processes
• Lessons learnt from Joint Programmes on food security and nutrition as well as CPFs.
• Clarified internal communication and reporting mechanisms on nutrition in FAO
• Shared resources from country, regional and global levels on nutrition with Colleagues