School Nutrition Inventory, edition 1-2020

Schools offer an opportune and favorable setting to accelerate action and contribute to the systemic action required to end malnutrition in all its forms. The benefits of school nutrition initiatives can extend well beyond nutrition – improving school enrolment and attendance, empowering women and girls, creating value chains for local food producers, supporting sustainable agriculture and ensuring safe and protective environments for growth and learning.

UN agencies have worked to develop a range of tools and resources to support governments, institutions and partners in advancing school-based and school-linked nutrition action in all contexts, including protracted crisis and humanitarian settings.

The Community of Practice on School Nutrition, facilitated by UNSCN, has published the first edition of their Inventory on School Nutrition initiatives. This inventory takes stock on the most up to date guidance, tools and resources from UN agencies in collaboration with their partner organizations to advance the school nutrition agenda and provides a quick reference tool for anyone looking to take action on school nutrition.

The School Nutrition CoP plans to publish yearly editions to update the inventory content under UN Nutrition, in order to provide an up-to-date repository of UN agencies core work in the area of school nutrition.

Monday 14th December, 15:00-17:00 CET
Register Here
Full Agenda available hereInterpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish. 

FAO was established 75 years ago as the first specialized agency of the United Nations. Hunger was rife and with the imminent potential of a rising world population the question was - can the world produce enough food to feed its population? Since then the global nutrition situation has evolved. The spotlight has now shifted to food systems and their failings in providing healthy diets: can the world nourish its fast-growing population?

Working towards the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, FAO is currently updating the Vision and Strategy for FAO’s Work in Nutrition and appropriately is setting for itself the vision of “a world where all people are eating healthy diets from sustainable food systems”. Dr QU Dongyu, Director-General of FAO, is leading the Organization to chart a new “path to a better tomorrow, through better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life”.

The UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 20202030: Nutrition, for Every Child outlines UNICEF’s strategic intent to support national governments and partners in upholding children’s right to nutrition, and ending malnutrition in all its forms over the next decade.

Today, at least one in three children is not growing well because of malnutrition. New forces are driving the nutrition situation of children – globalization, urbanization, inequities, environmental crises, health epidemics and humanitarian emergencies – posing critical challenges to feeding children sustainably today and for generations to come.

Yet there is reason to be optimistic.

Since 2000, the proportion of children under 5 suffering from stunting has declined by one third and the number of children with stunting has dropped by 55 million. While there are important challenges ahead, this achievement makes clear that a future without malnutrition is within our grasp.

To drive progress over the next decade, the Nutrition Strategy recommits to rights-based and context-specific programmes that are informed by evidence and innovation.

We expand our traditional focus on early childhood to middle childhood and adolescence. We renew our focus on preventing stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies, while increasingly responding to the challenge of childhood overweight and obesity.

And we propose a systems approach to nutrition that strengthens the ability of five key systems – food, health, water and sanitation, education, and social protection – to deliver diets, services and practices that support adequate maternal and child nutrition.

The strategy builds on UNICEF’s past strategic guidance and programme experience, while embracing six strategic shifts to respond to the evolving face of child malnutrition:

  • An explicit focus on addressing child malnutrition in all its forms
  • A comprehensive life cycle approach to nutrition programming
  • A deliberate emphasis on improving diets, services and practices
  • A systems approach to maternal and child nutrition
  • A greater attention to private sector engagement
  • A universal vision and agenda relevant to all countries

UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020–2030: Nutrition, for Every Child 

Summary

7-9 December 2020 - ONLINE: Live and on-demand

Pre-conference mini-symposia on 4 December 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create so much uncertainty, the in-person 4th International Conference on Global Food Security that was scheduled for 6-9 December 2020 in Montpellier, France has been canceled.

The 4th International Conference on Global Food Security Online will take place as a live-streamed and interactive event 7-9 December 2020, 12:00-18:00 CET, with pre-conference mini-symposia on 4 December 2020, 12:00-18:00 CET.

Register now to participate in an interactive conference experience direct from your desktop or mobile device: live-stream presentations and take part in discussion through live chat and Q&A.

Register here

 

4 December 2020 | 13:00-14:30 CET
Register here

World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocating for the sustainable management of soil resources.

This year's campaign, "Keep soil alive, Protect soil biodiversity" urges us to focus our attention on the workers belowground - from tiny bacteria to agile millipedes and slimy earthworms - all of which contribute to processes that are indispensable to life on Earth.

The WSD ceremony will be held virtually on 4 December with the participation of Mr Qu Dongyu  - FAO Director-General, Ms Elizabeth Maruma Mrema (tbc) - Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and thousands of soil fans. The winners of the Glinka prize and King Bhumibol WSD award will be announced during the celebration. An interactive quiz will challenge your knowledge of soil biodiversity.

More info available here

Wednesday 2nd December, 15:00-16:00 (Geneva Time)
Please register here

The Global Nutrition Technical Alliance (formally the GTAM) warmly invites you to join us for the official launch of the GNC Technical Alliance. 

The GNC Technical Alliance is an initiative to support practitioners to improve the quality of nutrition preparedness, response, and recovery, by enabling and providing coordinated, accessible, and timely technical support through multiple channels.  

The upcoming webinar will officially launch the initiative and provide more detailed information about the ambition, objectives, and activities of the GNC Technical Alliance.  

Guest speakers: Víctor Aguayo - Chief of Nutrition, Associate Director, UNICEF, Kalil Sagno - Nutrition Cluster Coordinator DRC, and Dan Irvine- Senior Director Health and Nutrition,  World Vision International.

The webinar will be hosted in English with French, Spanish, and Arabic Translation available. 

Follow the GNC Technical Alliance on LinkedIn and Facebook or https://ta.nutritioncluster.net/

GNC Technical Alliance brief

Tuesday, December 01, 2020 | 09:30 am to 11:15 am (EST)
Register here and watch online at IFPRI's event page

The world is facing a new nutrition reality in which persistent undernutrition and escalating overweight and obesity coexist within countries, communities, households, and individuals. This double burden of malnutrition brings a set of new challenges for policy and programming.

This seminar will present new global evidence on the magnitude of the double burden of malnutrition, describe the interconnected biological, societal, and ecological drivers of it, and propose a way forward on designing and estimating the cost-effectiveness of double-duty actions to tackle multiple forms of malnutrition simultaneously. The COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies the urgency of re-thinking nutrition policy and programming to tackle the new nutrition reality.

Agenda

Introduction

  • Francesco Branca, Director, Department of Nutrition for Health and Development (NHD), World Health Organization (WHO)

Speakers

  • Corinna Hawkes, Director, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London
  • Rachel Nugent, Vice President and Director, Center for Global Non-communicable Diseases, RTI International and Associate Affiliate Professor of Global Health, University of Washington
  • Barry Popkin, W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina
  • Jonathan Wells, Professor of Anthropology and Paediatric Nutrition, UCL Institute of Child Health

Closing remarks

  • Meera Shekar, Global Lead, Nutrition, Health, & Population, World Bank Group

Moderator

  • Marie Ruel, Director, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI

1 December, 14:00-17:00 (CET)
Register here

Resetting the future of food is possible and with this aim, on December 1st, during an international online dialogue, the Barilla Foundation and Food Tank will present concrete solutions to rethink our food systems from farm to fork.

"Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork" will highlight the critical role of farmers in feeding the world and managing natural resources, food business in progressing towards the 2030 Agenda, and chefs in re-designing food experiences. The prospects of technology and innovation, the role of food as prevention and the most recent policy developments, including the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, will also be discussed. These discussions will help set the stage for 2021 United Nations Food System Summit to be held in 2021.

More info on the website.

25 November 2020, 14:00 to 16.30 (CET)

Register here: https://ec4nut.blumm.it/event/ar/5/mdd-w-from-collection-to-action-25-11-2020 
(open until 23 November 2020)

The high-level policy event will emphasize the relevance of MDD-W in the broader context of healthy and sustainable diets and food systems transformation.

Presenters will illustrate how MDD-W data can be used for promoting inclusive food security and nutrition policies at national, regional and global level, as well as for tracking the progress on SDGs, the Nutrition for Growth commitments and the UN Food Systems Summit Action Tracks. The objective is to encourage the political support and mobilization of resources for the MDD-W indicator's continued and scaled-up use with the aim to measure progress towards improving diet quality and at the same time raising awareness on gender-specific dietary needs.

Download the programme here