EGM on SDG 2: Amos Laar Statement

Amos Laar

Professor of Public Health Nutrition, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana

 

Session 2: Target 2.2 -End all Forms of Malnutrition

Globally, progress towards meeting specific World Health Assembly (WHA) targets set for 2025 and Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2), particularly targets 2.1 and 2.2, is significantly lagging. This shortfall is exacerbated by a convergence of multiple crises, which complicates efforts to achieve these targets.  To address these gaps, mutually reinforcing strategies that tackle immediate challenges of eliminating hunger, but also all forms of malnutrition are needed. Sustainable healthy diets may serve as a bridge to reaching targets 2.1 (ending hunger) and target 2.2 (ending malnutrition in all its forms).

If we ensure that all people at all times have access to sufficient food and healthy diets we will be on the path to ending malnutrition in all forms.  So framed, it is not difficult to see how healthy diets serve as a critical link between SDG2 targets 2.1 and 2.2.  By healthy diets, I mean diets that are health-promoting, disease-preventing, and truly nourishing.  And when we expand the notion of healthy diets to sustainable healthy diets, we encourage sustainable production, and sustainable consumption, and thereby contribute to the broader objectives of SDG 2, including promoting sustainable agriculture and climate health.

However, getting this done – ending hunger, ending malnutrition in all its forms, and promoting climate health will require meaningful and sufficient contributions from multiple sectors. And so yes, I agree with Mauro when he says that addressing the challenge will require a multifaceted approach that extends beyond dietary changes.

In Ghana and other African countries, successful strategies often involve the collaboration of multiple sectors including food production (agriculture), nutrition, education, social protection, health and quite recently, trade and finance. I am familiar with impactful examples from African countries including Ethiopia (where their Seqota Declaration leverages the collective power of many to address stunting; and in Senegal where Community Nutrition and Health Programs focus on reducing malnutrition through community-based interventions.

I will focus on Ghana. In Ghana platforms that facilitate such multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagements include the Cross Sectoral Planning Group (CSPG) which was birthed following Ghana’s commitment in 2011 to Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) interventions. The CSPG is coordinated by the National Development Planning Commission, a supra-ministerial agency that convenes working groups including government sectors (health and non-health sectors), UN agencies, development partners, academia, and civil society.  The plans of the CSPG are operationalized through other platforms including the National Nutrition Partners Coordination (NaNuPac), another multi-stakeholder platform that predates the CSPG. While NaNuPAC is focused on implementation and service delivery, the CSPG focuses on policy and strategic planning. 

Through these arrangements, initiatives such as the Home-Grown School Feeding Program (HG-GSFP), the Nutrition-Friendly School Initiative (NFSI), and quite recently the Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives (HD4HL) project are being implemented in a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder fashion.

Overall, very good progress has been made. Ghana’s most recent DHS reports stunting prevalence at 17%, exclusive breastfeeding at 53%, wasting at 6%, childhood overweight at 2%. And yet, adult obesity rate has skyrocketed to 50%. The government of Ghana is currently being supported to combat malnutrition in all its forms through double-duty policies.   A fit-for-local nutrient profiling system has been developed to underpin implementation of four food-based policies – “front of pack nutrition labelling policy, regulations restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods, public food procurement policy, and food-related fiscal policy”. 

Key messages

• Healthy diets are an unambiguous link between SDG2 targets 2.1 and 2.2.
• Meaningful and sufficient multi-sectoral strategies are needed to complete the link: 
• Double-duty food-based policies present an opportunity to simultaneously address undernutrition and overweight, obesity, diet-related NCDs, and thus meet SDG2 targets 2.1 and 2.2.