Advancing Human and Planetary Health: Enabling Healthy Diets and Addressing Climate Change

19/04/2023

Geneva - The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva and the Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) organized the seventh issue of the FAO in Geneva Nutrition Dialogue Series on “Advancing Human and Planetary Health: Enabling Healthy Diets and Addressing Climate Change”. It focused on actions to address major obstacles to the advancement of agrifood systems transformation for healthy diets.

Urgent need to address climate change and nutrition nexus

The production of today's diets is putting significant strain on agrifood systems, compromising the stability and resilience of natural resources and biodiverse ecosystems, and contributing to climate change. Among the suggested actions to effectively address climate change and reduce agrifood systems’ environmental footprint, a shift towards healthy diets is considered central.

In response, the Government of Egypt, as President of COP27, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), FAO, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and other partners, launched the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN), which aims to create a strong alliance between the nutrition and climate communities to implement policy actions that simultaneously improve nutrition outcomes and support climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Building on the I-CAN, the seventh FAO in Geneva Nutrition dialogue featured country experiences from Malawi, Pakistan and Ethiopia highlighting practical examples across agrifood systems that can simultaneously accelerate progress on climate change and nutrition.

Linking advocacy to action: Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN)

In her opening remarks Naeema Al-Gasseer, WHO Representative to Egypt, introduced the ICAN and in particular the next steps to COP28. She highlighted that by COP28, I-CAN is expected to further articulate and amplify a narrative around climate and nutrition action, publish a report outlining the current situation in climate and nutrition action, as well as share a report on pathways to better nutrition and better climate actions.

To set the scene of the discussion, Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the FAO Food and Nutrition Division, presented FAO’s new findings on systems pathways through which climate and nutrition interact - the agrifood systems, water systems, health systems and social protection systems. She also elaborated on how climate change interacts with the whole agrifood system and its sectors, especially on diet. Her intervention was followed by three speakers focusing on experiences at field level.

Country stories from Malawi, Pakistan and Ethiopia

Pemphero Chawinga, Nutrition Specialist, spoke about enhancing the Resilience of Agro-Ecological Systems Project (ERASP) in Malawi, with an aim to address land degradation, loss of agro-biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Tannaza Sadaf, Portfolio Lead of GAIN Pakistan, demonstrated the importance of utilizing waste (whey) as a resource not only to reduce environmental impact but also to create new products that showed a potential for innovation as well as a new revenue stream in the dairy industry.

Sisay Sinamo, Senior Program Manager of the Seqota Declaration Federal Program Delivery Unit and SUN Focal Person at the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, introduced how Ethiopia integrates nutrition and climate action through the Seqota Declaration, especially by expanding climate smart irrigation potential to improve water-use efficiency and extend growing seasons, as well as improving climate resilient water supply.

A panel discussion moderated by Vivian Maduekeh, Climate and Health Program Coordinator of Global Alliance For The Future Of Food (GAFF) ensued speakers’ interventions. The panelists reflected on the case studies presented and discussed the integration of nutrition and health in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to accelerate progress on climate change and nutrition, the need to back piloted concepts with investments, as well as the necessity to collaborate with local partners for scaling up solutions.

Healthy diets – theme of FAO in Geneva Nutrition Dialogue Series in 2023

The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva and the Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) are organizing a series of Nutrition Dialogues in collaboration with the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels to share experiences and practical insights on how intervening in agrifood systems can support better nutrition and in doing so, also support other development outcomes across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The core component of the Nutrition Dialogue Series for 2023 is the sharing of relevant work carried out in agrifood systems in Member States with support from FAO and partners. The series highlights concrete actions in agrifood systems to achieve healthy diets, presenting an opportunity to examine positive actions as well as challenges. Examples showcase how existing activities influence diets and nutrition and where there are opportunities for engagement and collaboration to enhance synergies and manage tradeoffs across a range of development outcomes.