A SUN Movement Call to Action for Nutrition ahead of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

A multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach to nutrition must be front and centre in food systems transformation The United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), to be held this September, was called for by the UN Secretary-General in recognition that current food systems are failing people and…

September 14, 2021 - Last update: February 10, 2023

A multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach to nutrition must be front and centre in food systems transformation

The United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), to be held this September, was called for by the UN Secretary-General in recognition that current food systems are failing people and planet, alike. An unacceptable 3 billion people did not have access to healthy, nutritious diets in 2019 – a number that is already compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and comes with tremendous hidden costs for people’s health and society. Food systems also contribute to unprecedented biodiversity loss, water depletion and climate change – all significant threats to our nutrition lifeline.

The UNFSS Pre-summit of this July called for “transformative actions before it is too late”. As the SUN Movement, we could not agree more. With this Call to Action, we – the SUN Civil Society Network, SUN Business Network, SUN Donor Network, UN Nutrition and SUN Coordinator – collectively ask to place nutrition front and centre in any food systems transformation efforts.

We must make use of this historic opportunity for governments, donors, the private sector, UN agencies, and civil society to step up and announce bold commitments at the UNFSS to drive progress against the global nutrition targets.

Our request is therefore to elevate the role of nutrition as a key lever in the food systems transformation equation across the UNFSS agenda in September. The SUN Movement asks the UNFSS Secretariat, and all stakeholders involved in the upcoming Summit, to join forces and ensure that:

Nutrition is elevated as a key driver for food systems transformation throughout the UNFSS agenda and panel discussions
The Summit is inclusive and ensures a balanced representation of stakeholders
Private sector representatives – from multinational companies to small enterprises – commit to everyone’s right to healthy, affordable, and sustainable diets
The Summit weaves all sectors together to enable a true systemic transformation to improve nutrition

The Summit upholds the systemic approach with an accountability mechanism that transparently engages all sectors and stakeholders and ensures links with other global summits and processes.