Reference is made to the call for comments to the Vo CFS Voluntary guidelines on food systems and nutrition.
The Vo draft states that policy and institutional reforms are key to promoting sustainable food systems that improve nutrition and enable healthy diets. The 45th CFS session in 2018 endorsed a policy process which is expected to result in Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. The Voluntary Guidelines, like earlier CFS products, are intended to be a reference document that provides guidance.
At its 41th session, the CFS, based on a CFS-HLPE report, recognized that the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture is a fundamental condition for food security and nutrition. CFS recommended several actions to address the development, policy, management and enforcement challenges in order to maintain and enhance the contribution of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture to nutrition and food security. These policy recommendations should be referred to in the CFS Voluntary guidelines on food systems and nutrition, making sure that the CFS follows its own recommendations – to make fish a visible, integral element in food security and nutrition strategies, policies and programmes. We suggest to include a footnote in paragraph 40 in the Vo draft, with reference to the CFS policy recommendations on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition: http://www.fao.org/3/a-av032e.pdf
More over under chapter 1 "Production systems", a number of policy- relevant areas are mentioned. We are happy that you have inserted the footnote nr 23, which reminds us that in the UN the word "agriculture" also refers to fisheries and aquaculture, however to make sure that fish is "a visible, integral element" in this document, the policy-relevant areas could also specify "The role of fish in food security and nutrition". And that sustainable fisheries and aquaculture should be recognized as a fundamental condition for food security and nutrition. Fish should be a visible, integral element, with special regard to promoting fish as a source of proteins and micronutrients.
Best regards,
Anita Utheim Iversen
Senior Adviser
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries
Anita Utheim Iversen