Author Archive for: UNSCN Secretariat

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.

In the past few years, various countries, regions and cities from low-income to high-income economies have been developing a range of food procurement initiatives designed to use the regular demand for food on the part of government entities as a policy instrument targeting broader development objectives.

These initiatives—also referred to as Institutional Food Procurement Programmes (IFPPs)—are based on the premise that public institutions, when using their  financial capacity and purchasing power to award contracts, can go beyond the immediate scope of responding to the state’s procurement needs by addressing additional social, environmental or economic needs that contribute to the overall public good of the state (McCrudden 2004; De Schutter 2014; Kelly and Swensson 2017).

In particular, public food procurement initiatives have been recognised, especially in low-income economies, as a potential policy instrument to support local and smallholder farmers and to help integrate them into markets. They are thus recognised as a potential driver of the transformative development of local food systems (Morgan and Sonnino 2008; Sumberg and Sabates-Wheeler 2010; Gelli and Lesley 2010; Foodlinks 2013; De Schutter 2014; 2015; Fitch and Santo 2016; HLPE 2017; Kelly and Swensson 2017; UNSCN 2017).

A key example of public food procurement initiatives is offered by home-grown school feeding programmes. Although the definition of ‘home-grown’ may vary, this type of programme may be understood as a school feeding model that is designed to provide children in schools with safe, diverse and nutritious food, sourced locally from smallholders (FAO and WFP 2018). Other relevant examples of public food procurement initiatives include ones linked to strategic food reserves and broader food security programmes.

Various studies, as well as development projects, have analysed the key challenges involved in developing inclusive public food procurement initiatives that target smallholder farmers and their organisations, the reforms needed to bring these about, and the lessons to be learned from the current situation. Among the key lessons learned, there is an increasing recognition of the importance of a conducive and aligned public procurement policy and regulatory framework5 (Morgan and Sonnino 2008; Sumberg and Sabates-Wheeler 2010; Brooks et al. 2014; Swensson 2015; FAO 2013; Kelly and Swensson 2017; Swensson and Klug 2017). This includes, in particular, the alignment of public procurement laws, regulations and related practices.

The paper Aligning Policy And Legal Frameworks For Supporting Smallholder Farming Through Public Food Procurement: The Case Of Home-Grown School Feeding Programmesaims to help build this dialogue, bringing to the food procurement and rural development literature an analysis of the various legal mechanisms that can be used to align the regulatory framework in pursuit of broader development goals by means of public procurement in the form of home-grown school feeding programmes.

Thursday, January 17, 2019
14:30 – 16:00
The Aula, University of Oslo, Karl Johans Gate 47

Can we feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries? 

To answer this question, EAT gathered 37 of the planet’s foremost experts who, for the first time ever, propose scientific targets for what constitutes both a healthy diet and a sustainable food system.  

At the launch of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, the attendees will be guided through the report by two scientific superstars – Prof. Johan Rockström (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Stockholm Resilience Center) and Prof.Walter Willett (Harvard University), co-chairs of the Commission. 

Following the presentation, Dr. Richard Horton, the Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, will moderate a conversation and deep-dive into the key findings.

Dr. Gunhild A. Stordalen, EAT’s founder and executive chair, will share her vision on a global dugnad for a better food future. 

The doors will open at 13:45 and close 14:20, as the event starts at exactly 14:30.

A limited number of seats are available – register here.

The event will be live-streamed.

Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability, however our current trajectories threaten both. The EAT–Lancet Commission addresses the need to feed a growing global population a healthy diet while also defining sustainable food systems that will minimise damage to our planet.   

The Commission quantitively describes a universal healthy reference diet, based on an increase in consumption of healthy foods (such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and nuts), and a decrease in consumption of unhealthy foods (such as red meat, sugar, and refined grains) that would provide major health benefits, and also increase the likelihood of attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is set against the backdrop of defined scientific boundaries that would ensure a safe operating space within six Earth systems, towards sustaining a healthy planet.  

The EAT–Lancet Commission is the first of a series of initiatives on nutrition led by The Lancet in 2019, and will be followed by the upcoming Commission on the Global Syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change.

To access the EAT–Lancet Commission Hub page at The Lancet, click here.For the full report Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems (Walter Willett et al.), click here.

This guidance note supports the use of a comprehensive food systems approach (rather than a sectoral approach) and gives guidance on how to use food systems entry points to guide the delivery of healthy diets and subsequently address all forms of malnutrition.

However, particular focus is given to tackling overweight and obesity and preventing NCDs through healthier diets because of their increasing prevalence globally. The food systems approach detailed in this guidance note encompasses the creation of enabling food environments alongside cross-government policy dialogue. It aims to support decision-makers and stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector by addressing the following questions:

• How can each domain of the food system be coordinated to better contribute to healthy diets in order to prevent all forms of malnutrition, in particular overweight and obesity as well as diet-related NCDs?
• What changes in the food system are needed? What are the policy options that would positively impact people’s diets?
• What is the best way to actually bring about policy change?

This policy guidance note examines the various policy and intervention opportunities arising across the food system to support increased availability of and better access to affordable healthy diets. Through a stepwise approach, the guidance note supports decision-makers and stakeholders to better understand the interactions between the relevant policy instruments for reshaping food systems and creating enabling food environments in support of healthy diets, identify policy options and understand the political economy in order to facilitate policy change.

The FIRST’s Policy Guidance Notes series ensures that policy makers have the support they need to understand how sectoral issues affect food security and nutrition and to recognise how to incorporate these considerations into their policies.

Country commitments to the Nutrition Decade are included in an online repository and being tracked on regular basis by country self-assessments. We welcome you to follow progress from Brazil, Ecuador and Italy.

Additional countries are currently developing their commitments with guidance from the recently released FAO/WHO resource guide Strengthening Nutrition Action.