المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

On Wednesday 28 May the Government of Zanzibar launched a new innovative Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme in collaboration with the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and Table for Two to feed over 5000 school children, whilst simultaneously supporting local smallholder farmers by sourcing their produce for the school meals. 

“This programme is the first of its kind for Zanzibar and marks the Government’s awareness on the value of school meals for society as a whole” said PCD’s East Africa Senior Programme Manager, Iain Gardiner. He continued, “Not only will children be well fed in school but jobs will be created for farmers and other community members involved in the growing, processing and preparing of food for school meals.”

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The Food and Nutrition Security Training programme of the Centre for Development Innovation - Wageningen UR is pleased to announce the organisation of the

‘International Course on Rights-based approach to food and nutrition security, to be held in Wageningen, the Netherlands from 19 –30 January 2015’.

A fresh approach in addressing the problem of food and nutrition insecurity is the human rights-based framework. The right to food has been formally recognized since the adoption of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

This definition of the Right to Food has been further developed by FAO and is as follows: When every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical access and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.

As a participant in this course you will gain insights about concepts and principles within the human rights-based approach, Right to Food, Food and Nutrition security and their interrelationships. The course will address different concepts used in the right to food approach. Participants will be provided tools on how to set-up lobbying and advocacy campaigns and how to develop an intervention using a rights-based approach to address food and nutrition insecurity.

If you are interested in learning about rights-based approaches please consult our website of the Centre for Development Innovation for more information about the application procedure and costs.

Fellowships available: Deadline for fellowship application is May 6, 2014.

For more information on nutrition, agriculture and experiences of previous participants of our courses, please visit the nutrition security portal

The online discussion on the political outcome document of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) gathered a wide range of views, allowing this process to be highly participatory and benefit from important inputs from food security and nutrition stakeholders representing Member States, UN organizations, individual academics, civil society and the private sector.

Plese see the documents now available in the discussion page.

To know more about the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) please visit the website.

The Food and Nutrition Security Training programme of the Centre for Development Innovation - Wageningen UR is pleased to announce the organisation of 3 international courses:

1. Linking emergency aid to food and nutrition security, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from November 3 - November 14, 2014.

2. Agriculture Nutrition Linkages, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from November 24 – December 5 2014.

3. Rights-based approach to food and nutrition security, to be held in Wageningen, the Netherlands from 19 –30 January 2015.

Despite the world-wide increase of food availability, there are still around one billion people undernourished. This is far above of the target of MDG 1. There is now substantial evidence that malnutrition has life-long negative impacts on productivity and income-generating potential of the population.

Fellowships available: Deadline for fellowship application is May 6, 2014.

For more information on nutrition, agriculture and experiences of previous participants of our courses, please visit the nutrition security portal: www.wageningenportals.nl/nutritionsecurity

This strategy and work plan is based on the outcomes of the workshop held in November 2013 with the participation of FSN Forum members and representatives of organisations working on food security and nutrition in the region.

The document includes background on the FSN Forum in West Africa, the vision and strategic objectives and the areas of work identified for 2014.

To know more please download the strategy and work plan for the FSN Forum in West Africa.

21 November 2013, Accra – Seven years after the launch of the Economic Community Of West African States Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), food insecurity and hunger are still prevalent in West Africa. Acute food crises occurred in 2005, 2010 and 2012 in the region, hitting especially the Sahel. In 2012, 18.7 million people were affected by food insecurity.

Sharing knowledge and expertise on food security and nutrition is a key factor in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. Inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogues contribute significantly to the improvement of techniques and approaches for food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable populations.

Focus on West Africa Food Security and Nutrition Forum

Experts and practitioners in Food Security and Nutrition met on 20-21 November 2013, in the FAO Regional Office for Africa in Accra, Ghana, to discuss pressing Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) issues affecting the the Economic Community Of West African States. 

Approximately 16 participants from West Africa attended a workshop dedicated to the FAO’s Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa (FSN Forum), a worldwide network of experts and practitioners that take part in facilitated online discussions and knowledge sharing on food security and nutrition.

West African representatives from civil society, academy and research and government will identify key issues in order to support the further development of the West Africa FSN Forum and ensure its full ownership by regional actors.

“What is new is the focus on West Africa. The FSN Forum in West Africa will concentrate mostly on specific issues and concerns of the region”, said FAO Representative to Ghana and Sub-regional Office for West Africa, Mr Lamourdia Thiombiano, during the opening session. “It is particularly interesting that we are not reinventing the wheel here, but building on an initiative that has already proven to be successful at the global level and can be effective for the West African community, too”. 

Thiombiano also observed that inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogues contribute significantly to the improvement of techniques and approaches for food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable populations. “These exchanges help in raising awareness and strengthen stakeholders’ support of policy processes”.

Building on existing initiatives

The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition has been instrumental in building networks of stakeholders who can play a role in pushing forward the Right to Food agenda and in supporting the inclusion of diverse stakeholder groups into global food security and nutrition processes. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the High Level Panel of Experts of the CFS and the Post 2015 Development Agenda process feature among the FSN Forum collaborations.

"The FSN forum is ready to support the strategic objectives of FAO in the Region to reduce hunger and malnutrition", said Mauricio Rosales, Coordinator of the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition, "the main challenge for the FSN is to achieve a greater impact at grassroots level".

The inputs obtained from this workshop will help establish a better forum for the West Africa region.

The FSN Forum nurtures a community of 7 000 members with one third of them from Africa. The new West Africa FSN Forum will aim at supporting policy formulation and processes by providing a channel for local, national and sub-regional West African stakeholders to actively contribute to existing initiatives, such as the new FAO/Germany supported "Zero Hunger” project of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), that seeks to unite the efforts of all regional stakeholders, including governments, parliaments, civil society and organizations of producers around eradicating hunger in West Africa.

Links:

• FSN Fourm
• Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition
• Committee on Food Security
• Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2)