Background
Our food systems are not providing the food that is needed to support health and wellbeing in an equitable and sustainable way. What people eat is informed by what is available and accessible within their immediate food environment. Food environments can therefore have both positive and negative impacts on human health and states of malnutrition are often rooted in deeper issues of inequities. With respect to nutrition, equity would mean that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that supports health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, healthy diets are not accessible or available for many around the world.
The SHIFT Framework, developed by an international team of researchers, focuses on the intersection between food environments and human behavior using an equity lens. It is intended to complement existing initiatives and actions to address malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases. The framework involves four steps (1. Map, 2. Engage, 3. Transform and 4. Monitor) and is designed to assist technical staff such as programme managers and developers to promote the mobilization of high-level commitment and coordinated multi-stakeholder processes which improve health and nutrition equity, including the review of progress, and the sharing of lessons learned.
The Framework is a result of a collaborative process between Uppsala University, Karolinska Institutet, and EAT with technical and financial support from the World Health Organisation.
This official launch event aims to introduce the SHIFT Framework and draw attention to the great importance of incorporating equity and human rights frameworks into food environment transformation for nutrition and health. The event hopes to support and inspire future work in this area.
Objectives of the event
- Launch the SHIFT Framework, presenting its key steps through a demonstration, and exploring its potential contribution to addressing equity in food environments.
- Hear from experts on how taking an equity approach in national and global food systems transformation will support the human right to food.
- Reflect on the application of equity approaches to food systems transformation and identify key next steps for the future.
Provisional agenda
Time | Topic | Presenter |
14:00– 14:05 | Welcome and Opening Remarks | Dr Luz Maria De Regil, Unit Head Multisectoral Actions in Food Systems Unit (AFS), Nutrition and Food Safety Department, WHO HQ |
14:05 – 14:12 | Promoting equity in food systems through the use of human rights based approaches | Dr Amandine Garde, Professor of Law at Liverpool University |
14:12 – 14:19 | The importance of taking an equity perspective in food environment transformation at national and global level. [Pre-recorded] | Dr Sandro Demaio, CEO of VicHealth, Melbourne, Australia |
14:19 – 14:29 | SHIFT Framework demonstration | Dr Meena Daivadanam, Associate Professor & Senior Lecturer in Global Health International Child Health and Nutrition research group, Uppsala University |
14:29 – 14:55 | Panel Reflection: What are the next steps for equity in food systems transformation? | Moderated by: Prof Stefan Swartling Peterson Karolinska Institutet, Sweden Panellists Mr Pierre Cooke Jr., Technical Advisor to the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, Ambassador of the One Young World and Prime Minister, Barbados National Youth Parliament Dr Francesco Branca, Director Nutrition and Food Safety, WHO HQ Dr Amandine Garde, Professor of Law at Liverpool University |
14:55 – 15:00 | Closing | Dr Germana Leyna Managing Director of the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre |