Global forum on food security and nutrition

71.Ikenna Ejiba, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Greetings.

My contribution is as follows:

1. We expect that this Action on Nutrition should target vulnerable groups especially in the rural areas in low income countries like Nigeria. With the right amount of commitment, significant progress can be achieved.

2. The work plans should include actions against climate change with respect to mitigation and adaptation; while increasing awareness, and involving local community people in these processes; thereby making the people (beneficiaries) look forward to the expected future outcome.

In addition, issues of climate change-induced migration should be included, as evidence now suggests that nutrition and food security of households left behind are affected significantly.

Also, post-harvest losses of especially perishable farm produce constitute a problem in rural many rural communities in Nigeria. In other words, providing storage and preservation facilities would help minimize these losses. Therefore, funding through co-operative societies in these domains will be effective at the community level.

3.      Making the actors be more involved in the process of implementation will help to improve commitment. Setting-up of monitoring and implementation committees by public and private actors at the local and community levels to monitor progress at intervals, and report feedback with regard to implementation.

4.      All relevant forums can contribute momentarily through meaningful suggestion(s) on particular courses of action based on the feedbacks from the monitoring process.

72.Christina Krause, Food Fortification BASF SE, Germany

Fortifying staple foods in one of the most cost-effective interventions to tackle vitamin and mineral deficiencies, also called 'hidden hunger', and thus, contribute to sustainable development.

In order to improve nutrition for people at the base of the pyramid, affordable nutritious foods need to become accessible. It is critical to work together in multi-stakeholder alliances: local food producers can gain expertise how to fortify their food, and public authorities can standardize food fortification levels and assess the quality of the products. Lastly, the awareness of consumers about nutrition including adequately fortified and certified foods can be strengthened best among multiple stakeholders.

If all relevant stakeholder groups collaborate effectively, food fortification programs can contribute to an improvement in nutrition for all income groups in a sustainable and impactful way. Such local multi-stakeholder alliances are a critical need to administrate food fortification programs. Forums, such as the CFS and the UNSCN, can support such institution building by strengthening private and public actors' networks and encourage donors to support partnership interventions. Looking at the technical implementation, private sector businesses can support local food producers by using their expertise on food fortification and thus enable food producers to fortify their staple foods. This is an important contribution to a sustainable improvement of nutrition that is cost-effective and scalable.

73.Christine Campeau, facilitator of the discussion, UNSCN

Dear all,

We are thrilled with the engagement we have seen over the last few weeks. Over 70 contributions from all regions and stakeholder groups and, according to the FSN Forum, more than 10,000 visits from almost every country in the world—all in less than one month. We’re also starting to hear how you expect to contribute to the Decade; examples included IAEA’s offer to help evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition programmes and the commitment from the Grocery Manufacturers Association to limit marketing to children in schools.

Khairul Zarina Mohd Yusop from Malaysia emphasized the rise of non-communicable diseases in her country, mostly due to unhealthy diets. The National Plan of Action for Nutrition for Malaysia has incorporated a whole-society and whole-government approach to tackle the problem. Clement Goldson from Jamaica raised the idea that unsafe food should be regulated in the same way as cigarettes are, and stressed the need for better labelling and awareness raising.

We all agree on the universality of the problem and, broadly, on solutions. Examples shared in the discussion show that, despite the progress in reducing malnutrition—specifically undernutrition— progress has been too modest and uneven across regions, populations groups and gender. Meanwhile, the number of overweight people has increased enormously in virtually all countries worldwide demonstrating that the several forms of malnutrition are still on the rise.

Several of you noted the role our food systems play in providing sustainable, healthy, diverse diets and suggested that increased production is key. You’ve specified that this increase would need to focus on quality production to be able to address micro-nutrient deficiencies and would be geared towards lowering the consumption of ultra-processed foods. The global food system—in other words, the types of foods produced and how they are processed, traded, retailed and marketed—is failing to provide adequate, safe, diversified and nutrient-rich food for all in a sustainable way. Fixing food systems, so that they are sustainable and promote healthy diets will be vital to improving nutrition.

Food is only one part of the equation to ensure better nutritional outcomes for all, as it also includes care and universal health systems. Lal Manavado from Norway noted that the success of food production hinges on a local context (e.g. social, trade, transport, politics, education, communication) that is able to support and absorb the supply of wholesome food produced. Rosaline Ntula from Ethiopia echoed this point, highlighting the need to address nutrition in every component of the food system, from production, marketing, purchasing power, consumption and uptake.

We have heard that different forms of malnutrition can be found in the same country, the same community, the same household and even the same person. With less than a week left for this discussion, I’m looking forward to hearing more excellent examples of your plans to contribute to the success of the Decade.