The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy of Bangladesh (NFNSP) came a step closer to reality through a series of consultations conducted by FAO’s Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge (MUCH) project and the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU), Ministry of Food.

The NFNSP builds on the Second Country Investment Plan: Nutrition-Sensitive Food Systems, and is expected to inform the development of the 8th and 9th Five-Year Plans. The duration of the new policy is ten years, set to time with the target year of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Following national level consultations that took place in 2019, seven policy consultations were conducted in Sylhet, Khulna, Barishal, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, and Rangpur. They were attended by some 350 participants from government departments, local academia, civil society, and the private sector. The divisional consultations were complemented by community-level consultations with beneficiaries from various food and nutrition security projects in Bangladesh.

In his opening remarks at the first consultation in Sylhet, M Badrul Arefin, Director General (Additional Secretary), FPMU said: “The aspiration of the NFNSP is to improve the food security and nutrition status to the level needed to achieve the relevant SDG targets and fulfil related national and international commitments by 2030. The approach taken in the NFNSP is to consider the food system in its entirety.”

At the Mymensingh consultation, Naoki Minamiguchi, MUCH Chief Technical Advisor, elaborated on the extensive policy consultation process taking place since mid-2018 as well as the ambitious plan to develop an ‘NFNSP Plan of Action’ from January 2020. He spoke of his appreciation for the valuable feedback received from the participants – especially researchers and academics from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) – which improved the quality of the draft.

A final draft will be submitted in December allowing time for timely endorsement of the NFNSP by the Cabinet and Parliament as ahead of a launch.  

MUCH is implemented by FAO in collaboration with the FPMU of the Ministry of Food and with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU).