Global forum on food security and nutrition

48.Rosalie Ntula, Freelance, Ethiopia

Greetings-

Please find below my answers to your questions

1. Expectations

1.1 I expect the un decade of action on nutrition to consider all the components of the food system because nutrition is a discipline that is affected or that affects all the components/ different steps in the food system i.e. food production, food purchasing power, food marketing, food selection, food education, food consumption, food absorption and utilization and food discharge.

1.2 Addressing all the current and futuristic challenges encountered in all the different steps of the food system will significantly improve nutrition and food security of the people within the next ten (10) years.

1.3 These challenges are: land and water scarcity / conflicts, natural disasters, lack of will to work the land, lack of will to consume healthy food products, health conditions, manpower shortages, motivators/drivers, wars, unemployment, youth unemployment, drought, lack of knowledge of consequences of poor diets, etc...

2 Critical activities among others but not limited to:

2.1. A clear definition of healthy diets, which includes cultural and traditional attributes, should be set and discussed with mothers, during before and after pregnancy by paid health workers.

2.2. A revision of the school curriculum to include food and nutrition as a class should be done.

2.3. Awareness campaigns can be led and policy-makers informed on a regular basis.

2.4. Nutrition strategies and plans of action should be drafted, implemented and monitored.

2.5. Funding of those critical activities can be done through the voluntary contributions of citizens, which will in return be paid back five (05) years later. Records of the contributions should be kept.

3. Commitments

To accelerate and improve the quality of commitments from the various actors, there should be monitoring and rewarding of the actors, done by the United Nations different relevant organs.

4. Relevance of forums in the decade

Forums and other relevant movements should continue consultations such as this one, meetings, seminar, workshops, and remain informed.  If knowledge and time allow they can also train relevant stakeholders.

 

Thank you.

Regards.

R. M. Ntula

49.Christine Campeau, facilitator of the discussion, UNSCN

Dear all,

Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to the conversation. We have covered a lot of territory; however, let me try to summarize some of the issues that have been addressed.

It’s been emphasized that - for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition to achieve longstanding results - we need to be forward thinking and adaptive to the constantly evolving nutrition landscape. Emerging issues include modifications in dietary patterns, urbanisation and the effects of climate change on food availability. We have also heard that these pressures cause the greatest stress to those who are most vulnerable, and that this needs to be considered when designing and implementing policies. Attention has also been drawn to the potential to make significant gains in malnutrition by addressing food waste and post-harvest losses.

A reccurring theme has been the complexity of malnutrition, as well as the need to involve multiple stakeholders. The UNSCN will do its part to support the UN “delivering as one” by helping to strengthen policy coherence, enhancing dialogue and identifying linkages to foster joint nutrition action, partnership, mutual accountability and advocacy on nutrition.

Isaac Bayor from Ghana suggested government departments and institutions be supported in order to build capacity to jointly plan, budget, implement, and monitor nutrition related goals. This would help avoid duplications and would ensure that policies are translated into actions that are routinely monitored, evaluated, reassessed and improved.

Wilma Freire Zaldumbide from Ecuador reminded us of the need to learn from nutrition success stories, such as from Brazil, Peru and Columbia. While solutions need to be context specific, peer-to-peer exchanges are one way to assess how the right policies implemented in the right countries can successfully reduce under nutrition in less than a decade.

On a similar theme, we have heard that nutrition programs must also be designed with and able to inform a wide range of actors. By building the capacities of front-line workers, food vendors and local practitioners, we ensure that individuals are equipped to regulate against unsafe practices, uncover bottlenecks and create a demand for improved nutritional services. Building the knowledge amongst journalists is important in this respect, as the media has an important role to play in amplifying key messages and promoting healthy eating.

Contributors have also reminded us of the need for stronger collaboration between the nutrition and agriculture stakeholders to reshape the global food system for better nutritional outcomes. The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) called for “strengthening sustainable food systems”. The Decade takes that one step further by placing its support for the improvement of diet quality through sustainable food systems at the center of global action.

As our online conversation continues, it would be good to hear more about the roles and responsibilities of the various actors, as you see them. We know the longstanding issues so tell us what commitments you expect from whom to go beyond business as usual. How best, for example, can the Decade support women and girls’ nutrition?

We very much look forward to the next round of comments in the coming few days.

50.Jackson Tumwine, International consultant in the field of food security and nutrition, Uganda

Thank you all for your contributions. 

As for Uganda, I would suggest three key areas of human resource capacity, having a full implementation team in place and engaging high level decision makers. 

1. Support Uganda to strengthen human resources in the nutrition secretariat for strategic oversight and coordination: In Uganda, the task of operationalize multisectoral nutrition through Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP) at national scale is a monumental undertaking that involves attention to many components of the system.  The oversight and coordination of all the necessary activities – involving interactions, advocacy and negotiations with a large number of government and non-government stakeholders and organizations – requires the full-time effort from a Multisectoral Nutrition coordinator located in an institution that enables effective oversight and coordination.

2. Support the country to create a full-time implementation team to support cascading and on-going support to sub-national levels: The task of orienting and training the 115 districts and lower local government levels, and supervising and supporting them in a responsive fashion over time, requires a mobile implementation team dedicated to those functions.  Currently, Uganda does not have such a team but the Country has recognized the need.

3. Effectively engage high level decision makers in government and partner organizations in addressing critical bottlenecks, through candid reporting from the technical secretariat, the use of real-time progress markers and the establishment of clear lines of accountability.  

The rationale for singling out these three actions from the much larger set of challenges facing the country is that all or most of the other challenges can be addressed if there are dedicated staff and clear procedures in place to do so.  The most compelling lesson from our project is that the task of building and maintaining a MSN system is much too large for the human resources currently dedicated to it.  And the most encouraging lesson from is that it is well within the power, the resources and the good will of the partners in the country to alleviate this constraint. In addition to these high leverage, strategic actions, which might apply to other countries, there are some additional specific actions needed in Uganda.  Some of these can be initiated or accomplished while the three strategic actions are being pursued, but all of them would be addressed in a more effective and sustainable manner if the MSN coordinator and implementation team could be put in place in a timely manner.

Specific Actions:

1. Put in place formal procedures on how things should be done. This is best done by having MSN implementation guidelines to be used at all levels (national and district implementation teams)

2. Need to have a phased work plan for the implementation of Uganda Nutrition Action Plan

3. Cultivate a culture of collaborative decision making/planning for activities and how to communicate internally (within districts, Sectors and Government, CSOs, development partners) and externally with global nutrition agencies such as SUN.

4. Need to conduct institutional capacity assessment for the implementation of MSN at the national and sub national levels

5. Build strategic partnership with all development partners supporting MSN in the country including agreement on key strategic directions for moving forward the country MSN nutrition agenda.

6. Continuous capacity building of all stakeholders involved in MSN implementation at all levels, in the areas of strategic capacity, adaptive management, documentation and sharing of experiences

I’m sorry, I focused more on Uganda, in the next sharing, I will attempt to pay attention to the global picture.

Thank you,

Jackson