Consultation
Inclusive public school food procurement to improve schoolchildren nutrition
Public School Food Procurement can be an effective tool for improving the nutrition of schoolchildren and to integrate local producers into school food programmes. The aim of this discussion is to exchange experiences and lessons learned among experts of the region, as well as to identify good practices, challenges and barriers to an effective public school food procurement.
Reports and briefs
Leaving no one behind - A Regional Outlook on Gender and Agrifood Systems
In Africa, women are critical agents of change in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition. They are the backbone of their households, communities, and rural economies covering important roles in food production, processing and marketing, and also in the nutrition of the family...
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FAO flagships
2019 Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition
In the 2017 and 2018 editions of the Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, FAO reported that the prevalence of undernourishment was rising in the region. The latest data shows that the deterioration has slowed, but there remain 256 million hungry people in Africa today. The report...
Reports and briefs
FAO School Food and Nutrition Framework
The FAO School Food and Nutrition Framework aims to support governments and institutions in developing, transforming or strengthening their school policies, programmes and other initiatives for an enhanced and synergistic impact on diets, child and adolescent nutrition, community socioeconomic...
FAO flagships
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020
Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the...
Reports and briefs
Nutrition guidelines and standards for school meals. A report from 33 low and middle-income countries
Setting nutrition guidelines and standards has been recommended internationally to ensure that school meals are in line with children’s nutrition needs and adequate to their context. This report provides a descriptive overview of the situation of school meal nutrition guidelines and standards in 33...
Survey on the CFS Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched a survey to collect experiences and good practices in the use and application of the CFS Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA).
This survey complements an earlier call for inputs issued in March 2019 and will contribute to monitoring progress on the use and application of the CFS-FFA, both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.
The survey is available in English, French and Spanish and you are welcome to provide your answers in any of the six UN languages. Deadline is the 30 April 2020.
For additional information, please contact [email protected].
Consultation
Food security and nutrition: building a global narrative towards 2030 - HLPE consultation on the V0 draft of the Report
During its 45th Plenary Session, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to produce a brief report titled “Food security and nutrition: Building a global narrative towards 2030” that takes stock of HLPE contributions “with a view toward informing future CFS actions on FSN for all in the context of the 2030 Agenda”. The report will be presented at CFS 47th Plenary session in October 2020. The HLPE is organizing a consultation to seek inputs, suggestions, and comments on the present preliminary V0 draft.
FAO flagships
Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia 2019
The Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia 2019 consists of three main sections: 1) an in-depth situation analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 2 Target 2.1 (to end hunger and ensure access to food by all) and Target 2.2 (to end all forms of malnutrition), as...
FAO cooks up ingredients for healthier and more nutritious school meals
While hunger is on the rise at the global level, in Europe and Central Asia, food quality more than quantity poses a problem for many. A considerable number of adults – and children – suffer from one or more forms of malnutrition at the same time, including stunting, wasting, overweight, and micronutrient deficiencies.
Given the detrimental effects of insufficient nutrition on child well-being, learning ability, academic performance, and future productivity, promoting healthy diets and improved nutrition should be a high priority on school development agendas. To this end, FAO has organized a regional workshop to present and discuss school food and nutrition approaches in Europe and Central Asia on 11–13 December in Minsk. The event is part of an FAO project on strengthening food security and nutrition in selected countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, funded by the Russian Federation.
Although educational institutions are meant for learning, they provide a unique opportunity to address factors contributing to malnutrition. Discussions at the regional workshop will centre around a broad framework to guide the implementation of school food and nutrition approaches in the region. Also on the agenda will be current country practices, innovative ideas, and possible future directions for governments, development partners, and donor agencies to support the progress of school food and nutrition approaches.
“Comprehensive school meal programmes and other nutrition-sensitive interventions support physical and intellectual development of schoolchildren; and when family farmers are involved, the programme can help rural development as well,” said Mauricio Rosales, senior FAO project coordinator. “The framework developed at the workshop will contain realistic actions for countries, and will guide FAO and donors on increasing institutional, social, economic, and environmental sustainable school food and nutrition programmes.”
In recent decades, FAO data has revealed improvements in the food security situation of Europe and Central Asia. However, pockets of undernourishment and stunting can still be detected in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Iron, vitamin A, iodine, and zinc deficiencies are rather severe, especially among children. This, together with high obesity rates in all ages, reiterate the need for providing more nutritious and healthy diets.
“A limited number of keynote presentations and generous time will allow for group discussions and plenary sessions, and a visit to a school food production facility should facilitate the development of a common understanding and action on improved school food and nutrition,” Rosales added.
Representatives of 20 countries, several partners, and experts will share their different practices on tackling these issues, highlighting the main obstacles, and exchange lessons learned for effective and practical recommendations on better school food and nutrition systems.
Comprehensiveness is an important element of the project to link school feeding with supporting smallholders and local rural economies. This approach, along with other examples, will be presented incorporating agriculture, sustainable value chains and food systems, social protection, education, and trade.
The workshop follows the FAO approach on school food and nutrition that builds on four elements: enabling environment (policy, legal, and institutional), food and nutrition education, a healthy food environment and school food, and inclusive procurement and value chains. An additional crucial element to be realize through this event is the coordination among government, civil society, and the private sector.
11 December 2019, Minsk, Belarus