Malnutrition and unhealthy diets are important risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Francesco Branca and colleagues call for changes in both what and how food is produced, marketed, and consumed in their latest articleTransforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases.
Key messages
Download the full article here.
28-29 January 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
As part of the SUN Movement’s stewardship arrangements, the SUN Movement Executive Committee acts on behalf of the SUN Movement Lead Group to oversee the development and implementation of the Movement’s strategy.
More info available here
Malnutrition in all its forms, including obesity, undernutrition, and other dietary risks, is the leading cause of poor health globally. In the near future, the health effects of climate change will considerably compound these health challenges. Climate change can be considered a pandemic because of its sweeping effects on the health of humans and the natural systems we depend on (ie, planetary health). These three pandemics—obesity, undernutrition, and climate change—represent The Global Syndemic that affects most people in every country and region worldwide. They constitute a syndemic, or synergy of epidemics, because they co-occur in time and place, interact with each other to produce complex sequelae, and share common underlying societal drivers.
This Commission recommends comprehensive actions to address obesity within the context of The Global Syndemic, which represents the paramount health challenge for humans, the environment, and our planet in the 21st century.
To access The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change Hub page at The Lancet, click here. For the full report, click here.
To be in good health, individuals require nutritious food, high-quality water, physical activity, adequate sleep, and a living environment devoid of germs and toxic contaminants. An imbalance in any of these factors may manifest in one or more forms of malnutrition including being undernourished or becoming overweight or obese.
The term double burden of malnutrition (DBM) connotes a situation where at least two or more forms of malnutrition coexist at individual, household, or national levels and at different points in an individual’s life. The IAEA supports countries in applying stable isotope techniques to assess key indicators associated with the DBM and to evaluate the impact of corrective actions to address it, thereby contributing to evidence-based policy formulation.
To learn more about their work, and to download your copy of the IAEA Brief: Stable Isotope Techniques Help to Address the Double Burden of Malnutrition, visit here.
The 9th Nutritional & Health-related Environmental Studies Newsletter features the following articles.
Meeting outcomes
New publications
Success stories
This edition also features a NAHRES Special article entitled The future of food systems by the UNSCN.
You can download you copy here.
On 8 November 2018, the Ministry of Health of Brazil announced the launch of two new Action Networks in the Region of the Americas, in partnerships with the Ministries of Health of other countries, under the umbrella of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition: the Action Network on Strategies for Reducing Salt Consumption for the Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Disease and the Action Network on Food Guidelines. The first Action Network has the goal to work towards meeting the World Health Assembly global targets from reducing risk factors for NCDs while the second Action Network aims to support countries in the development, implementation, monitoring and assessment of guidelines that deal with the level of food processing. More information available here.
Meanwhile, an Action Network on nutrition labelling is being established, led by France and Australia, with the purpose to accelerate action, share technical expertise among countries in implementing nutrition labelling and review and generate more evidence on the effectiveness and limitations of different front-of-pack labelling systems.
Issue 11 of Nutrition Exchange features some common themes of networks and coordination for nutrition, including a short article on the commitments made by Brazil, Ecuador and Italy under the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (available at pages 28-29).
Nutrition Exchange is an ENN publication that contains short, non-technical and easy-to-read articles on nutrition programme experiences and learning, from countries with a high burden of undernutrition and those that are prone to crisis. It also summarises research and provides information on guidance, tools and upcoming trainings in nutrition and related sectors. It is published twice per year and one issue is dedicated to Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement related learning and experiences of scale up which is facilitated by the ENN SUN Knowledge Management Project regional and Global team.
NEX is available in English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
A stocktaking event is planned to be held in October 2019 during CFS 46 Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to monitor the use and application of the following CFS policy recommendations:
Set 1: Investing in Smallholder Agriculture for Food Security and Nutrition (endorsed in 2013)
Set 2: Connecting Smallholders to Markets (endorsed in 2016)
Set 3: Sustainable Agricultural Development for Food Security and Nutrition: What Roles for Livestock?
(endorsed in 2016)
The Committee on World Food Security requests stakeholders to provide inputs on their experiences in applying any of these policy recommendations by 22 April 2019 to inform the CFS 46 event.
These policy recommendations are of great relevance to all CFS stakeholders, and particularly to the smallholder producers who are the main contributors to food security and nutrition and the most numerous category of family farmers. They are key protagonists of the United Nations Decade on Family Farming and this stocktaking event at CFS 46 will constitute a specific contribution of CFS to the Decade in 2019.
The event will focus on how smallholders have effectively benefitted or are expected to benefit from these CFS policy recommendations. It will also look into the potential application of CFS policy outcomes, especially for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the context of the UN Decade on Family Farming and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. Given the important role of women in the context of smallholder agriculture, the event will also contribute to mainstreaming the messages of the 2017 CFS Forum on Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition.
All inputs received will contribute to monitoring progress on the use and application of the three sets of CFS policy recommendations. All inputs will be compiled in a document made available for delegates at CFS 46 in October 2019.
Please use the template available here for sharing your experience in applying any of these policy recommendations. You can upload the completed form below or send it via email to fsn-moderator@fao.org. The deadline for submissions is 22 April 2019.
Submissions can be made in any of the UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and should be strictly limited to 1,000 words.
