Global forum on food security and nutrition

19.Lindy Fenlason, independent, United States of America

1. 
   What are your expectations for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and how could it make a significant difference in improving nutrition and food security of the people in your country within the next ten years?
   

-focused attention/validation of nutrition as an essential global issue requiring urgent action

-acknowledgment and action that collegial and consistent with being on the same playing field. 

-acknowledgement and participation/contribution on the forms of malnutrition across the malnutrition spectrum

-continue to increase evidence and evidence-based programming here at home while also providing technical guidance and resources in other country settings (but not simply exporting protocols and standards without acting on what happening in the US)

2. 
   What critical activities need to be included in the Work Programme for the implementation of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition to reach the 2025 global nutrition targets? Which activities would need to be accelerated in your country to reach these targets? How could these activities be funded?
   

-data!!!!! Tracking prevalence and trends in malnutrition forms as well as evidenced base around initiative that can be taken to scale. 

- building local nutrition leadership capacity: clinical and community provision and programs that are nutrition specific and/or nutrition sensitive, governance (dietetics, nursing, public health, ag, research, M&E, knowledge management, policy.

-recognizing obesity fully as the urgent form of malnutrition that it is. Conveying that message clearly and relevantly to the public and other stakeholders

3. What can be done to accelerate and improve the quality of commitments from the various actors? What role(s) should public and private actors play in monitoring their implementation?

4. How can other relevant forums, such as the CFS and the UNSCN, contribute, and how can other movements (e.g. human rights, environment) be involved in the Decade?

-so many other sectors are tied to nutrition. Open the door, provide consultations, and examples for these sectors to make public statements and focused action commitments, creating unified messaging and translating that into action (steps in integrated programming and demonstration of proof of priniciples), even if quite small to begin. And then consider how nutrition can reciprocate- reinforcing the unifying messages.

20.Christine Nyaga, Independent, Kenya

Intersectoral corllaboration and cordination is key in efforts to end malnutrition in sector.I would like to see more engagement with not just ministry of Health but all relevant ministries,civil organisations and the private sector coming together to address all issues related to Food Insecurity in Kenya.

21. Lukiya Birungi, Uganda Action for Nutrition (UGAN) Society, Uganda

I would first of all like to applaud the United Nations for the Decade of Action on Nutrition. I expect to see a huge difference in the way malnutrition is fought globally, regionally and country-wise because with the engaged and “in-your-face” backing of the UN in the struggle to do away with malnutrition, I believe most governments (especially those that weren’t involved as much before) will be more open to considering taking part in interventions that show participation in this Decade of Action on Nutrition. Granted it might just be for show, but that will still be better than no commitment or participation at all.

The activities I believe require acceleration and taking into serious account especially in my country:

• Commitment (/action) to implementing policies put in place. Uganda has of the best written policies but implementation is minimal, at best, and non-existent, most times. Holding governments accountable will go a very long way in ensuring we see some action.

• Right information in the right hands: Nutrition has received some good publicity of late but unfortunately the information is mostly in the hands of those who are already aware. Also the public is very skeptical about the little that has leaked out to them. Communication tactics that simplify the information passed but at the same time pass on information relevant to the people to which the messages are being passed. This concept of generalized information needs to change especially for countries like Uganda where certain individuals use the platforms to pass along information that doesn’t work for everyone.

• Urbanization, increasing income, growing populations and climate change: we tend to focus a lot on the “old” issues: poverty, diseases, poor sanitation and so on. The new problems are not being put into contest or they are being totally ignored. While making policies during this decade of action, we have to put into account these problems of the 21st century in catering to how we will see about the future diets.

22.Christine Campeau, facilitator of the consultation, UNSCN

This is a great start to the discussion. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. I see a number of themes emerging.

One is the fact that policy decisions need to be evidence based. Linked to this is the importance of connecting decision makers with the academic community, empowering local institutions to be agents of change. Examples of academic groups working to make that connection include the Global Nutrition Report and its Independent Expert Group, International Union of Nutritional Sciences and World Public Health Nutritionists Association. The value of disaggregated data and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms were underlined in order to ensure that the nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions are having the desired impact and reach the most marginalized communities and households.

A strong case was made for rights based policies. As Pat Vanderkooy, Dietitian of Canada pointed out, it is our shared public responsibility to protect the environment and human rights “with dignity and equity, not by charity”. We need to raise awareness about the importance of good nutrition through broad-based campaigns with target groups ranging from primary school curriculums to education of the elderly. Civil society actors continue to be the biggest advocates for nutrition but we all have a role to play. The more informed people are, the better equipped they are to organize, mobilize and work with their governments and businesses towards the necessary changes in their food systems and to safeguard their rights.

There have also been some references on the need to build the economic case for investing in nutrition. According to the 2015 Global Nutrition Report, every US $1 spent on high impact nutrition actions such as exclusive breast-feeding yield at least US $16 in return. This support can be catalyzed by foreign assistance but, ultimately, nutrition needs to be a national priority supported by domestic finances to ensure long-term, sovereign growth. Thomas Herlehy, Independent Agricultural Consultant expressed it well when he wrote: “future economic development depends so much on future generations and their ability to lead healthy lives, contributing to the growth of the economy and making intellectual contributions to solve local problems”.

The importance of working together has also been emphasized. The GTSA (Groupe de Travail sur la Sécurité Alimentaire, [Food Security Working Group]) in Cameroon and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement were mentioned as success stories that demonstrate the benefits of working across sectors and stakeholder groups towards a coordinated response to malnutrition.

Moving forward, I’m very interested to hear more about what you see as the roles and responsibilities of the various actors, both duty bearers and right holders.  How do you think we can accelerate and improve the quality of commitments from the various actors to address all forms of malnutrition and how you see these activities being funded? Comments are of course welcome on all aspects and expectations for UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.

Thank you again for the thoughtful contributions, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.