Decade of Action on Nutrition event and online consultation

On 20 September 2016, the “United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition: Working together to implement the outcomes of the Second International Conference on Nutrition” event was held at during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly and was co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Italy, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Governments will not should not and cannot act alone. To tackle malnutrition in all its forms, we need the broadest possible alliance of supporters from all works of life, school children, their teachers, farmers, business people, doctors and nutritionists of course, builders of health and sanitation systems, chefs and consumers of food, activists, civil society, researchers and philanthropists”.

First Lady of Zambia, Esther Lungu

Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, stressed the importance of nutrition on economic growth and the important role of women as change agents. Chan described the commitment of member states to the Decade of Action on Nutrition as a rallying cry for action and highlighted new figures showing that 156 million children suffer from stunting today.

Although hunger and obesity might look very different, their root causes are actually the same. This means that often one set of actions can address both problems, so-called double-duty actions. Programs that provide nutritious foods in schools are an example of what governments can do to address malnutrition in all its forms.”

An excerpt from “Ending malnutrition in all its forms? A decade of opportunity”, a commentary by Dr Francesco Branca, Director of Nutrition for Health and Development (WHO) and Anna Lartey, Director of Nutrition Division (FAO).

Watch the webcast at UN WEB TV

Online consultion

Following the event, an online consultation was opened to help elaborate the Work Programme for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition! All stakeholders are invited to join the discussion and share the actions and actors needed to make the Decade a success.

The consultation is open for three weeks, until 11 October 2016, in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish on the FSN Forum website.