Archive for category: UNSCN

The Lancet series on the Double Burden of Malnutrition is now available. The double burden of malnutrition is the coexistence of overnutrition (overweight and obesity) alongside undernutrition (stunting and wasting), at all levels of the population—country, city, community, household, and individual.

This four paper Series explores how this coexistence is affecting low-income and middle-income countries. Malnutrition in its many forms has previously been understood and approached as a separate public health issue, but the new emergent reality is that undernutrition and overnutrition are interconnected and, therefore, double-duty actions that simultaneously address more than one dimension must be implemented for policy solutions to be effective. In addition to policy recommendations, the Series includes a focus on both historical and biological contexts, and new economic analysis.

 

UNSCN was pleased to join 18 other experts from leading organisations in the call for new stakeholders to join the nutrition manifesto. Recognizing that in the Nutrition Decade a new global nutrition movement is emerging that needs to take the lead in demanding food systems change.

Summary brochure and policy brief

Expert Commentary

A new nutrition manifesto for a new nutrition reality

Francesco Branca, Alessandro Demaio, Emorn Udomkesmalee, Phillip Baker, Victor M Aguayo,Simon Barquera, Katie Dain, Lindsay Keir, Anna Lartey, Gladys Mugambi, Stineke Oenema, Ellen Piwoz, Ruth Richardson, Sudhvir Singh, Lucy Sullivan, Gerda Verburg, Patrizia Fracassi, Lina Mahy, Lynnette M Neufeld

 Series papers

1) Dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition and the changing nutrition reality

Barry M Popkin, Camila Corvalan, Laurence M Grummer-Strawn

2) The double burden of malnutrition: aetiological pathways and consequences for health

Jonathan C Wells, Ana Lydia Sawaya, Rasmus Wibaek, Martha Mwangome, Marios S Poullas, Chittaranjan S Yajnik, Alessandro Demaio

3) Double-duty actions: seizing programme and policy opportunities to address malnutrition in all its forms

Corinna Hawkes, Marie T Ruel, Leah Salm, Bryony Sinclair, Francesco Branca

4) Economic effects of the double burden of malnutrition

Rachel Nugent, Carol Levin, Jessica Hale, Brian Hutchinson

 

Thursday, November 14, 2019 
12:15 pm to 1:45 pm (EDT)
IFPRI, Washington, D.C. 

Food systems in developing countries are undergoing a rapid transformation shaped by global and regional events. But country actions will be critical in shaping future food system outcomes. 

Some countries are taking a systemic approach to assessing and acting on food system transformation—considering consumption and food environments, food supply and sustainability, health, and socioeconomic outcomes.

This seminar will introduce this approach, and representatives from Nigeria and Viet Nam will discuss the challenges, opportunities, and trade-offs they encounter in enabling food system actors in their countries. A panel will share insights into how food systems can develop in a healthy, sustainable, and equitable way.

Live webcast and post-event viewing available here.

Register here

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched a survey to collect experiences and good practices in the use and application of the CFS Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA). This survey complements an earlier call for inputs issued in March 2019 and will contribute to monitoring progress on the use and application of the CFS-FFA, both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish and you are welcome to provide your answers in any of the six UN languages. Deadline is the 31 March 2020.

For additional information, please contact CFS@fao.org

Open until 30 January 2020

SUBMIT HERE

UNSCN Nutrition is the peer-reviewed journal published by the UNSCN. The 45^th edition, published in 2020 will focus on the theme ‘Nutrition in a Digital World’.

The Internet and other digital technologies have dramatically changed the world as we knew it just ten years ago. Information and data are being produced, shared, and consumed at prodigious rates, and people are connected in previously unthinkable ways. Digital economies are rapidly replacing traditional modes of production and exchange. Nutrition is no exception, with the proliferation of “food techs”, “agri techs”, “edu techs”, “fin techs” and even “gov techs” covering a broad spectrum of agriculture-, food systems- and nutrition-related activities. The potential benefits may be vast, and so may be the dangers. We are only now starting to grasp the scale of change this new digital world is bringing.

The benefit-risk duality can be exemplified with digital influence in food consumption. On one hand, educational games and web- or media-based digital nutrition education tools have shown potential to improve nutrition literacy and encourage healthier eating practices. On the other, digital marketing is shaping a digital food environment that promotes overconsumption of foods high in salt, sugar, unhealthy fats and additives, which is very challenging to address.

The reach and impacts of the digital world in nutrition, however, go far beyond demand side and food consumption issues. Digital processes and technologies are reshaping almost every industry and human activity, and the implications of such changes for health and nutrition are not yet sufficiently investigated, let alone understood. Increasing digital competence, overcoming the digital divide generated by inequalities, as well as the impacts of automation on the job market, have become major development challenges. The digital world potentially affects not only underlying and immediate causes of malnutrition in all its forms, but also its root causes, and our ability to address them.

The UNSCN Nutrition 45 aims at better documenting and sharing experiences, enhancing knowledge and promoting the debate on potential positive and adverse impacts of innovative digital technologies in people’s nutrition. It is also expected that it will contribute to the ongoing debate on establishing an international Digital Council for Food and Agriculture that will advise governments and other relevant actors, drive the exchange of ideas and experiences, foster innovation and help harness the opportunities presented by digitalization.

There is an intrinsic complexity in the digital world given its fluidity and speed of change that makes it difficult to grasp in its full extension and potential. This Call for Contributions welcomes conceptual thinking and academically rigorous examples of how the digital world is affecting people’s nutrition along, but not limited to, the following perspectives: 

• What are examples of use of digital technologies that are changing nutrition action and food systems for more sustainability and improved nutrition?
  
  
• What are some specific examples on how digital technologies are changing food environments for the good or for the bad? How can the potential of digital technologies be leveraged to improve food environments?
  
  
• What has been the impact of digital technologies on food literacy and consumption practices? What examples are there of digital literacy and training on food and nutrition issues?
  
  
• How do digital technologies influence the quality and accuracy of available nutrition information? How can we best communicate nutrition in the post-truth age where there is an overload of information from multiple and varied sources?
  
  
• How is digital technology changing our relationship with food and affecting food cultures and traditions around the world?
  
  
• How are digital technologies affecting food production, biodiversity, food transformation and food distribution?
  
  
• How does digital technologies impact inequalities? Are they deepening the divide? Or, are they expanding access to information, goods and services?
  
  
• What is the potential of digital technologies in addressing the root causes of malnutrition in all its forms?
  
  
• Are digital technologies facilitating the design and implementation of nutrition-related activities within new development paradigms, such as shared and participatory economies?
  
  
• Are digital technologies influencing financial investments in nutrition? What are the modalities?
  
  
• What does innovation in nutrition look like, especially in low- and middle-income countries?
  
  

Contributions can be submitted on the following categories:*
 
Feature articles: 3,000 word articles related to the general topic of the publication. The articles will be submitted to peer review and can include conceptual contributions, original research or practical examples.
   
Speaker's Corner: 1,500 word articles with the authors’ views regarding the perspectives listed above. The section sometimes features a counterpoint by another author holding an opposite opinion to stimulate debate.
 
Publications: 200 word notes on recent publications of relevance to global nutrition, including manuals, tools and guidelines that are usually not found in regular bookstores. We welcome publications related to the overall topic of this issue of UNSCN Nutrition but not limited to it.
 
*Please note that at the Secretariat’s discretion, contributions that promote commercial digital products will be considered unsuitable for publication in this issue.
 
On-line submission:
 
Please submit your contributions by using the UNSCN Publications and Events Manager here. If you encounter difficulties in using the system, please inform the UNSCN Secretariat by sending an email to SCN@fao.org with the title “Publications and Events Manager malfunction”. You will then be assisted in using the system.
 
 
For editorial information, please refer to the UNSCN Nutrition Guidelines for Contributors available here.

4-7 November 2019
Kathmandu (Nepal)

The SUN Global Gathering brings together all SUN Government Focal Points and representatives of their partners from civil society, donor, United Nations agencies, private sector partners, academia, media, parliamentarians and others. It is the flagship event of the SUN Movement and an important moment where members take stock of progress and challenges, share their innovations and learn what is helping to reduce malnutrition across all SUN Countries. It is a moment for every actor to be energised and encouraged through sharing, learning and finding ways to take their fight against malnutrition to the next level.

As in previous years, the SUN Global Gathering will be divided into several sections including plenary sessions, workshops, and a marketplace designed to showcase country experiences in scaling up nutrition. This year, we are also planning plenty of space (and support) where participants will have the opportunity to share their unique experiences and perspectives.

More information available here.

The 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that while the world has made gradual progress in reducing hunger on a global scale since 2000, this progress has been uneven. Hunger persists in many countries, and in some instances progress is even being reversed. The GHI highlights where more action is most needed.

This year’s GHI highlights the inextricable link between hunger and climate change and the shared urgency of solving two of the world’s greatest challenges. As climate breakdown accelerates, it is clear that all sections of society—nations, donors, businesses, NGOs, and communities—will have to put their shoulders to the wheel to arrest this environmental devastation and ensure we set a course for genuine global sustainability, universal food security, and Zero Hunger.

GHI2019’s report includes a closer look at hunger and undernutrition in Haiti and Niger, with an examination of the main factors contributing to hunger and the policy environment in which those factors operate. Both countries face serious hunger and are already being severely impacted by climate change. Although the two countries are implementing a range of programs and policies to improve people’s food security and nutrition, they require additional efforts and support if they are to achieve a sustained positive impact.

Global Hunger Index 2019