A Side event to the High Level Political Forum
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Background
Improved nutrition is essential for achieving the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and ensuring that no-one is left behind. Malnutrition, in all its forms, represents a significant barrier to equitable and sustainable social and economic development. Variations in nutritional status and access are both a driver and an outcome of inequity. Undernutrition inhibits cognitive development and educational success, both of which are important determinants of labour productivity and economic growth. Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for non-communicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Malnourished children in the poorest income groups are most likely to face multiple deficits and require effective intervention coverage for prevention, treatment and care.
Nutrition inequities are also driven by political, economic, geographic and social factors and multiple malnutrition burdens disproportionately affect women. Improved food security and nutrition help foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies, and should be addressed in ways that promote sustainable consumption and production, can protect the planet from degradation, and mitigate the effects of climate change. Investing in nutrition has the potential to pay significant dividends in breaking the poverty cycle and in stimulating economic development.
Estimates suggest that up to 11% of gross domestic product is lost to maternal and child undernutrition, and the total economic impact of obesity is estimated at 2.8% of GDP worldwide. Well-nourished children are 33% more likely to escape poverty as adults and investments in nutrition are able to generate benefit-cost returns of 16-to-1. In short, by investing in improved nutrition, Member States and their partners in sustainable development can ensure that all people, societies and nations can reach their full potential, and contribute to the attainment of many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations General Assembly has recently adopted a resolution proclaiming a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition from 2016 to 2025. The resolution aims to trigger intensified action to end hunger and eradicate malnutrition worldwide, and ensure universal access to healthier and more sustainable diets – for all people, whoever they are and wherever they live. It calls on governments to set national nutrition targets for 2025 and milestones based on internationally agreed indicators.
Taking the commitments from the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) Rome Declaration and the recommendations of the Framework for Action, under the broad umbrella of the SDGs, the Decade offers a time-bound window for joint action on human and planetary health through translation and implementation into national policies and integration in climate actions. Marking the launch of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025), the event will explore how gov¬ernments, from across the world, are working with their partners in sustainable development to improve nutrition outcomes.
Scope and purpose
The aim of the side-event during the ministerial segment of the HLPF is to draw attention to the importance of nutrition to achieve the full potential of the 2030 Agenda. The event will showcase how governments, from across the world, are embedding nutrition in their national strategies and plans, looking at policies and investments in health, the food systems, education and social security that contribute to ensuring that no one is left behind.
It will highlight that nutrition is a cross-cutting priority, the cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder ways of working in nutrition programming, and encourage country leadership and learning across countries as Member States prepare their own national plans to implement the 2030 Agenda in the years ahead. Speakers will highlight ways in which cross-sectoral action and multi-stakeholder collaboration can be mobilised, how political attention can be galvanized, and crucially, how collective responsibility can drive accountability for improved nutrition results.
The side event will contribute to continued efforts to create and sustain an enabling environment for scaling up investments and policy commitments in nutrition. It will highlight how Member States, organizations of the United Nations system and other international organizations and platforms, and non-State actors can contribute to the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) by formulating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound commitments in support of achieving the commitments of the Second International Conference on Nutrition and the targets of the 2030 Agenda.
Co-organizers
Government of the Republic of Uganda and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), and Scaling up Movement (SUN) Secretariat.