Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

November 12-16, 2018 in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

The conference will be a five-day event, including a field visit.

Experts in the field of sustainable agriculture, food security, nutrition security, climate change, integrated pest management, organic farming, agro-ecology, value addition, soil health management, policy experts in climate change and sustainable agriculture will be presenting the lead papers.

Please, visit the website for further information www.foodsecurity2018.com

13 June, 2018, Ararat region, Armenia – The staff and pupils of Vedi secondary school where all present today at school, despite the fact that the school year is over and pupils enjoy their summer holidays. The reason was more than justified – the greenhouse gave the first harvest! There was tasty food, Armenian national dances and admiration, which was seen in everyone’s eyes.

This greenhouse is the smallest in size from the three established in Ararat marz within the framework of Russian Funded “Developing Capacity for Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Selected Countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia” project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), in technical partnership with the Russian Social and Industrial Foodservice Institute (SIFI).

Compared to its size, the harvest was very rich, for which, of course, a big credit goes to the caring staff and pupils of the school.

The principal of the school Mrs. Papoyan expressed her gratitude to FAO and SIFI for the valuable work done and for the willingness and kindness to help her in realization of the dream project. “Words cannot express the feelings that I have today, and how much thankful I am to all of you for your support and input in this hard work”, she said.  “Our pupils have the chance to taste the fresh grown vegetables throughout the whole year, which will add up to their nutritional value and dietary diversity”.  

“We are happy to be here to celebrate the first harvest from the greenhouse, which is the result of dedicated work and productive cooperation of the school staff, FAO of the UN and SIFI project teams” said Ms. Zaruhi Beglaryan, National Project Coordinator of the FAO project.  “We do hope that vegetables produced in the greenhouse will help to improve diversity and fulfil nutrition requirements of schoolchildren’s diets”.

At the end of the event the pupils, teachers and all invitees tasted the fresh tomatoes which were served together with cooked buckwheat – the hot meal of the day!

The relationship between trade and food security is drawing ever greater attention on both the trade and the development agendas. Equitable trade is recognized as a powerful driver for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in achieving Zero Hunger in the context of climate change.

As patterns of consumption and production continue to evolve, global agricultural trade is expected to continue to increase over the next decade. The objective now is to ensure that the expansion of agricultural trade actually works for the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition globally. This challenge is at the core of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) support to its Members in the preparation of trade agreements, in particular under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

FAO, in collaboration with key partners, will be hosting and participating in a number of side events at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires.

Open until 31 January 2018



UNSCN NEWS is the flagship, peer-reviewed publication of the UNSCN. The 2018 edition will focus on equity and non-discrimination as drivers of good nutrition.



Inherent barriers exist in food systems that prevent people from overcoming persistent and intergenerational malnutrition and poverty. In order to overcome these barriers and ensure that no one is left behind, systematic analysis of food system dynamics, as well as the various causes of malnutrition, will help assess how equity impacts and is impacted by nutrition.



Inequality refers to differences, variation and disparities in the living conditions of individuals and groups. Inequity adds a moral dimension, referring to the process by which certain outcomes are produced, to the way in which wealth is distributed, and to how needs are assessed and addressed (adapted from Norheim and Asada’s definition, 2009). Equity is concerned with fairness and social justice and aims to focus on people’s needs rather than the provision of services to reach the greatest number of people.



Drivers of malnutrition can intersect and overlap, intensifying the exclusion of certain groups of people. These may be difficult for an external audience to address but are intimately understood by those affected. Therefore, marginalised and deprived people should be empowered to set their own priorities and be equipped to participate meaningfully in decision making processes, advise on the implementation of the approaches and monitor and evaluate the outcomes to ensure that the benefits reach the intended targets. If this goes ignored, the international community will fail to utilise the local knowledge and expertise available and continue holding people back from reaching their full potential.



The progressive realisation of the right to adequate food requires States to fulfil their human rights obligations under international law. There are several international instruments available in which the progressive realisation of the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, is enshrined. These include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (Art 25), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art 2 and 11), UN Charter (Art 55 and 56), the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the four Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols. Only when a human rights approach is taken will the international community be able to work according the principles of universality, indivisibility, participation, accountability, transparency and non-discrimination. In the forthcoming edition of UNSCN News, we intend to explore the principle of equity and non-discrimination.



In September 2015, more than 193 member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda is people centered and prioritizes leaving nobody behind. This means not just focusing on ensuring progress for entire countries, reflected by averages, but looking specifically at the people who do not benefit from development because current strategies have been unsuccessful in reaching them. The proclamation of the Nutrition Decade amplifies that message and provides a springboard for the realisation of the SDGs. It intensifies the urgency to act and generates new energy in support of the achievement of the Global Nutrition Targets, diet related NCDs and invites the nutrition community to work with non-traditional sectors such as trade, environment and human rights.



KEY QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

• How do different forms of inequity affect malnutrition and how can the barriers in the food systems preventing people to get out of malnutrition be overcome?
• How can human rights law and institutions more systematically underpin efforts aimed at bettering human nutrition?
• How can the insights and tools of the socially oriented nutrition community help to identify how human rights principles should guide development, enhancing sustainable positive effects for the human being and for society?
• What examples demonstrate the potential for nutrition to unveil the biological outcomes of discriminatory practices?
• What is the role of full transparency, especially when it comes to the availability of data and nutrition relevant information?
• How can the collection of disaggregated data be improved to ensure that inequalities become visible?
• How can the nutrition community help the development community better recognize that, in many situations, the connection between income and dietary adequacy is not linear?

We welcome contributions on the following categories:



Feature articles: 3,000 words articles related to the general topic of the publication. The articles will be submitted to peer review and can include conceptual contributions or practical examples of policies and programmes.



Publications: recent publications of relevance to nutrition, including manuals, tools and guidelines that are usually not found in regular bookstores. Max. 200 words per submission.



Speaker's Corner: 1,500 words articles with the authors’ views regarding a hot topic in nutrition policy or programme. The section sometimes features a counterpoint by another author holding an opposite opinion to stimulate debate on important issues.



Please send your contributions electronically to the UNSCN News to [email protected] with the title “UNSCN NEWS 43 Proposal”. For editorial information, please refer to the UNSCN News Guidelines for Contributors available here.



Deadline: 31 January 2018

In the stream of events following the 2014 ICN2, and under the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, FAO and WHO co-convened the International

Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition in December 2016. This Symposium is being replicated at regional level,

to better address challenges specific to each region. Regional symposia for Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and Africa have been

successfully held in the past months.

Video recordings and materials can be accessed from www.fao.org/about/meetings/sustainable-food-systems-nutrition-symposium/regional-symposia

The next in line is the Europe and Central Asia symposium, starting Monday 4th December at 9 AM Rome time, GMT+1

Plenary Sessions will be LIVESTREAMED throughout the two-days symposium at the following urls:

LIVE STREAM DAY 1 (4 December 2017) :

• Morning Session: www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/4542/icode/
• Afternoon Session: www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/4544/icode/

LIVE STREAM DAY 2 (5 December 2017) :

- Morning Session: www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/4543/icode/

- Afternoon Session: www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/4546/icode/

Recordings of ALL sessions will be available online after the event.

DESCRIPTION:

The symposium will provide a platform for multi-sectoral consultation, exchange of knowledge, views, practical solutions, good practices, experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of policy options and strategies to improve the nutritional status and health of all groups of population, available options that each food systems' element can bring to address dietary gaps and opportunities for multi-sectoral alignment and coherence, actions to leverage for sustainability.

The symposium will discuss ways to address the multiple challenges of all forms of malnutrition and identify opportunities to address them in a multi-sectorally integrated manner through four thematic areas that are essential for achieving healthy, diversified and balanced diets:

(1) Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems;

(2) Food demand and food environment;

(3) Improving nutrition of vulnerable groups;

(4) Governance, leadership and accountability for nutrition.

RESOURCES :

· Web page: www.fao.org/europe/events/detail-events/en/c/1034293/

· Programme: www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/reu/europe/documents/events2017/FNsymp/Programme_en.pdf