Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

On behalf of the Private Sector Mechanism, we would like to highlight the Policy Recommendations attached, which were compiled with the aim of ensuring the Voluntary Guidelines on Food System and Nutrition are both implementable and transformative. We look forward to participants' feedback and thank the secretariat in advance for their consideration.

Dear Sirs,

We are very glad to participate in this forum on food loss and waste reduction in Europe and Central Asia.

One of our concerns on this issue is the lack of rigorous data and its relationship to the specific stages of the process.

On this we have published the work "Food availability databases: statistical gap and proposals for improvement" that we attache.

Best wishes

Yvonne Colomer

Triptolemos Foundation

Dear all,

I welcome the initiative for those guidelines. 

My first comment is about the name: guidelines are by definition voluntary, so it is not neccessary to include 'voluntary' in the title. 

Background and rationale.

The focus is on health, missing in 9. a delivering of helathy diets and reduce their impact on the planet, and in 10.  diets that meet the planetary boundaries. 

One of the objectives (18.) should include the discourage of overconsumption and the prevention of obesity. 

21. Not only issues on genetic resources, but also natural resources and minerals. 

Key concepts: please add the FAO (2010) definition on sustainable diets.

Overall add healthy and sustainable diets (36e, 41, 43b)

43b: minimizing the inputs, but also the outputs (pollution, greenhouse gass emission, etc). 

43c: Sustainable use of agrodiversity, does also mean fitting into local climate, soil and water resources.  Missing the issue of soil degradation, 

43i: Climate change also affects the harvests and yields. 

44. About food waste. For consumers proper cooking, preparationg and shopping is also crucial. Policy relevance in more higher income countries has to focus on the issue of food waste in households (as main waster) by policies on smart shopping, storing and preparing.

45. Packaging should also refer to the importance to reduce the impact on the environment and the promotion of recycling. 

46b focuses on the production of local foods. This should include foods in season accomplished with some food from other regions with the lowest impact on the environment.

Restrict the marketing of products high in saturated fats, added sugar and salt. Essential fatty acids should be promoted, as wel as fruits with natural sugars. 

51b. There should also be transparancy on environmental labels, including independent audits and high standards. 

55b. Please add as example onfood based dietary guidelines, that more and more countries include guidelines on sustainability issues, i.e. promoting fresh, local and seasonal products and not ultraprocessed foods and promoting a balance between protein from plant-based sources and animal-based sources. 

55.c Nutritional education could include production methods, school gardens and increasing connections between producers and cosumers.

Nous devons ajouter aussi  ,la problématique de l'utilisation des emballages non biodégradable(sachet) utilisés en afrique dans les marchés pour faciliter le tansports des aliments dont la gestion devient aussi une menace dans les bonnes pratiques de recyclages des dechets.

Des alternatives doivent etre développés et vulgariser pour la reduction de l'utilsation des emballages non biodégradable dans le menage.

Par exemble:

Utilisation des emballages à papier

Des paniers à usage multible,

Des emballages réutilisable,...

Gédéon Bakerethi WWF RDC

Estimado CSA

Agradezco el espacio para poder opinar sobre el borrador cero de las Directrices Voluntarias sobre los Sistemas Alimentarios.

Considero de la mayor importancia tener en cuenta a los sistemas alimentarios de los pueblos indígenas en la formulación de las directrices voluntarias; por lo que anexo mis opiniones y sugerencias en el formato del proceso normativo.

Saludos

Thanks for the opportunity to comment.  The draft is an excellent start. We have commented in the template about the need for a greater focus on food sytems producing obesity and climate crisis, and the role of the commercial sector.

Tim Lobstein for World Obesity Federation

1. Does Chapter 1 adequately reflect the current situation of malnutrition and its related causes and impacts, particularly in line with the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda? What are the underlying problems that currently hinder food systems to deliver healthy diets?

Chapter 1 addresses more or less the current situation. However, it would be great if the call and description be more dramatic in the sense that show how food systems now face severe biophysical constraints on achieving food security and optimal, healthy and sustainable nutrition, with increases in agricultural production  slowing because of climate disruption, yields and nutritional quality of crops being threatened by the loss of pollinators, growing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, fertile soil being lost to both wind- and water-caused erosion, salinization, and nutrient depletion, groundwater supplies for irrigation are increasingly limited as a consequence of overpumping and contamination of aquifers, excessive applications of pesticides and fertilizers have contributed to dangerous levels of exposure to toxic substances, pollinators are declining rapidly as a result of climate disruption, poisons in the environment, and habitat destruction as a result of changing land-use practices. So the attempt to frame the issue of food security and healthy nutrition as either “the solution lies in more equitable distribution of food” or “there are too many people and not enough planet,” miss an essential factor that links these two viewpoints: achieving the forms of governance needed to more equitably distribute resources becomes ever more difficult on a more crowded and degraded planet. Meeting the challenge of food security and optimal and sustainable nutrition demands a revolutionary change in food systems, necessarily one as far-reaching as a combination of the agricultural revolution, now 10 millennia in the past, with the industrial revolution and the multiple transitions to more democratic governance that started three centuries ago. So the drama should be in the sense that the problem is very very serious - not that it is not presented that way, but there is always some room for increasing importance.

2. What should be the guiding principles to promote sustainable food systems that improve nutrition and enable healthy diets? What are your comments about the principles outlined in Chapter 2? Are they the most appropriate for your national/regional contexts?

Policy makers around the world should be urged to move food and nutrition to the top of their political agendas. Anything less is a recipe for disaster and a balanced diet must be in line with changes in our food systems - both in the demand and supply side! If we look closely at our diets, most of us will realize plenty of our food does not fit this criteria. EAT-Lancet report made an effort, but your efforts can amplify and solidify action within the Decade of Action on Nutrition Framework. Governments should assume responsibility for the international impacts of their food systems policy decisions. The food sovereignty of other countries should be respected. Policies should enable self-supply of the population with healthy food and should promote the protection of resources, the climate, biodiversity and animal welfare. Strengthening rural structures, local economies, labor rights and small-scale food producers, establishing public programs that provide locally produced food, applying stringent standards for food labeling and the regulation of unhealthy products and paying special attention to the first 1,000 days of life as the starting point of a good and healthy well-being are core elements of such a political framework. Breastfeeding!!!

3. In consideration of the policy areas identified in Chapter 3 and the enabling factors suggested in paragraph 41 of the Zero Draft, what policy entry points should be covered in Chapter 3, taking into account the need to foster policy coherence and address policy fragmentation?

Nutrition sensitive policies should aim to improve the underlying determinants of nutrition outcomes through targeting dietary quality, household food security, income generation and women’s empowerment (very important!!!). Some entry points can be inspired by the  'Strengthening Nutrition Action: A Resource Guide for Countries Based on the Policy Recommendations of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2)' themes. Some language can be added for the demonstrated potential of how nutrition-sensitive interventions influence and improve intermediate outcomes such as dietary diversity, women’s empowerment and the consumption of environmental-sustanable and healthy foods - this in return can help identifiy the needs to continue supporting and conducting research and scaling up actions in theses critical areas to support efforts to meet the globally agreed sustainable development goals. Chapter three can create a vision and help policy makers looking forward to the future governments, international donors and development organisations and how they should be encouraged, nudged and supported to implement nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions and strategies to achieve their development goals related to the food security, healthy and sustanable nutrition, as well as eradicate poverty and achieve SDGs.

4. Can you provide specific examples of new policies, interventions, initiatives, alliances and institutional arrangements which should be considered, as well as challenges, constraints, and trade-offs relevant to the three constituent elements of food systems presented in Chapter 3? In your view, what would the “ideal” food system look like, and what targets/metrics can help guide policy-making?

Oh boy, this is a great question! In order to have sustainable, equitable, and healthy food systems for the future it would be required to integrate analytical methods and approaches from a range of disciplines, as well as effective intersectoral policy analysis and multi-stakeholder engagement, including private sector - which to be honest I am not fan of! My take is that if we have a 'population health - centered' food system we can be able to address food systems challenges, especially as nutrition-related NCDs such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer are major contributors to the global burden of disease. If we can shopw governments and people how changes in food system will be translated in changes in health, perhaps we can have some leverage and create some hope! For metrics, traditionally, components of production and consumption systems can be used to assess or improve the efficiency of a particular element or activity within the food system, based on the assumption that this will also improve the efficiency of the whole system - very important principle to keep in mind! Food systems approach must identify, analyse and assess the impact and feedback of the systems different actors, activities and health and nutrition outcomes to help identify intervention points for enhancing health and nutrition sustainably.  Therefore considering the bigger picture of the food system that it is not only a sum of the basic elements of how we get our food from farm to table, but also all of the processes and complex infrastructure involved in producing, bringing and distributing food for a specific population. I do not know if I make sense!

5. How would these Voluntary Guidelines be most useful for different stakeholders, especially at national and regional levels, once endorsed by CFS? 

To be honest voluntary guidelines alone will be insufficient to improve food environments and food systems, but with the endorsement of CFS and other organizations more attention will be paid to reducing social, cultural, political and economic barriers that can help develop leadership and capacity to ensure the sustainable changes expected for food systems to achieve SDGs. Apart from serving as referecne point this may be the value! I hope for the best.

We have been researching what our forefathers consumed previously and have found that Indigenous African Foods offer a possible solution to alleviate the food crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. There has been very little research on Indigenous African Foods from a nutritional value perspective. We are currently working on the characterization of common indigenous foods from Zimbabwe with emphasis on the protein, vitamin, oil, carbohydrate, and mineral content. Many indigenous recipes that were used previously have slowly become extinct and the African Food Revolution is working on research and documentation of Indigenous African Foods. We firmly believe that with local resource management, a food secure Africa is attainable. www.africanfoodrevolution.org 

Bonjour,

Ci-joints mes commentaires insérés dans le document ci-joint.

Sonia Blaney

Dear Committee,

I have also taken a critical review of the zero draft. It appears great to make the next stage. I only found an error (peoples instead of people).

It is great to progress to the next level.

Thank you

Esther Yeboah Akoto