ECOSOC 2019 Management Segment

6-7 June 2019
New York

The Management Segment serves the following functions:

  • The review of the reports of the Council’s subsidiary and expert bodies; these include the reports of all Functional Commissions, the Regional Commissions, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, as well as expert and ad hoc bodies. 
  • The system-wide coordination and review of specific development issues, with a view to promoting a more integrated response to specific areas (for example, gender mainstreaming or non-communicable diseases).
  • The consideration of special country situation or regional issues which are on the agenda of ECOSOC (including the work of its Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti). 

On 6th June, in accordance with its mandate, UNSCN will present the Report for 2018.

Draft Programme

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Food safety is everyone’s business

The first ever celebration of the United Nations World Food Safety Day, to be marked globally on 7 June, aims to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe.
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FAO Webinar: Food-Based Dietary Guidelines: What are they? How they are used? What is their potential?

Tuesday 4 June
13.00 (GMT), 14.00 (CET)

Presenter: Fatima Hachem
Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer
Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Group, FAO

In the arena of food and nutrition, consumers around the globe are bombarded with information and advice on how to eat better in order to improve health and well-being. Having dietary guidelines that are food-based, built on scientific evidence and culturally and economically appropriate to the local context is what governments have been engaged in establishing in the last few decades.  Although these guidelines were thought essentially as a consumer education tool, the data and information base on which they are founded goes beyond the nutritional problems at country level to span a wide area of related sectors and policies. This renders the dietary guidelines useful for a range of other usages while addressing the local public health and nutrition priorities, including public procurement, social protection, food subsidies, food security and nutrition and agricultural policies. 

FAO has been actively assisting Member Countries in the development, implementation and revision of their Food-based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) and has been periodically reviewing the progress made in the development and use of FBDGs as well as tracking changes in their overall focus and orientation. FAO also hosts a growing online repository of FBDGs which is proving useful for researchers and policy-makers alike.

Join us for this webinar where we will provide an overview of food-based dietary guidelines focusing on the following questions:

  • What are national FBDGs?
  • How have they been traditionally used? 
  • What is their potential use?

The webinar will also highlight some examples of national FBDGs across the world, and present FAO’s current work in this field.

This is the first of a series of 6 webinars on FBDGs that are organized by the Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Team of FAO

Register here

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FAO chief hails international treaty combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today hailed the countries committed to combating unsustainable and illegal fishing, calling the rapid international adoption of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) a “fantastic achievement”. 87 countries are signatories and another 18 are preparing to adhere.
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E-Conference: The Latest Evidence on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

3-5 June 2019

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture offers great potential for Sustainable Development Goal 2 as it connects agricultural development to improved nutrition outcomes. Examples of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions are bio-fortification, home vegetable gardens, and small animal rearing (Ruel et al. 2018).

Since many nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions have been applied in recent years, this E-Conference aims to:

  • Take stock of what we have learned so far about nutrition-sensitive agriculture, i.e. what works and what does not work, and under what conditions?

  • Share and discuss this knowledge with practitioners in the field (e.g. farmers, extension workers, NGOs and policy makers)

  • Turn the evidence base into concrete recommendations for practitioners to implement effective nutrition-sensitive interventions in agricultural development

Register to join this free online conference. Subscribing allows you to participate in the daily live sessions with our experts and access the online community to discuss insights, exchange project results, ask questions and discuss challenges with colleagues from around the world.

Programme

Monday 3 June, 13:00 GMT: Smallholder production and Dietary Diversity

Matin Qaim of the University of Göttingen will discuss the linkages between smallholder on-farm production diversity and impacts on dietary diversity, as well as the impacts of specialization of cash crops on consumption benefits.

Tuesday 4 June, 13:00 GMT: Market Challenges and Solutions to Nutritious Food Access

Harold Alderman of IFPRI will discuss the linkages between markets, diets and nutrition with a particular focus on affordability and access of nutritious foods in low- and middle-income contexts, the challenges and potential market-based solutions.

Wednesday 5 June, 13:00 GMT: Women’s Empowerment for Better Nutrition

Agnes Quisumbing of IFPRI will discuss women’s empowerment as well as ownership and control of assets, and its impacts on child and women’s nutritional status and overall household food security.

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