High-level Leadership Dialogue on Food Systems for People’s Nutrition and Health

Organizer

Principal leads: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF)

Co-leads:  The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP)

Background

In 2019 the UN Food Systems Summit was announced by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, as a part of the Decade of Action for delivery on the SDGs by 2030. The aim of the Summit was to deliver progress on all 17 of the SDGs through a food systems approach, leveraging the interconnectedness of food systems to global challenges such as malnutrition, climate change, poverty, and inequality. The Food Systems Summit itself took place on 23 September 2021 during the UN General Assembly. 

During the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), and as part of the Chair’s Summary and Statement of Action, the UN-Secretary General has committed to convene “a global stock-taking meeting every two years to review progress in implementing the outcomes of this process and its contributions to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.” The first of these Food Systems Stocktaking moments (UNFSS+2 STM) is convened by the UN Secretary-General and will be taking place from 24 to 26 July 2023 at FAO Headquarters in Rome. The UNFSS+2 STM is hosted by the Government of Italy in collaboration with the Rome-based Agencies of the United Nations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, and the wider United Nations system.

With less than a decade to go to achieving the SDGs, 2.4 billion people continue to suffer from food insecurity along with 478 million children living in food poverty in early childhood.  While 145 million children under-five suffer from stunted growth and development due to malnutrition in early childhood, 136 million children aged 5-9 years live with overweight and obesity as do 670 million adults. New forces – globalization, urbanization, increasing poverty and inequities, and climate and humanitarian crises – are posing critical challenges to realizing the global nutrition targets, especially for the youngest, poorest, and most marginalized whose access to a healthy diet is increasingly constrained.

To reinforce the evidence that sustainable food systems contribute to better and more sustainable outcomes for people, planet and prosperity, leaving no one behind, the UNFSS+2 STM includes 10 Leadership Dialogues that are intrinsically linked to the plenary sessions. Leadership Dialogues are part of the official programme of the STM. One of those Leadership Dialogues is the Food Systems for People’s Nutrition and Health Dialogue, which is co-organized by WHO, UNICEF (Principal Leads) and FAO and WFP (Co-leads).

Objectives

The objectives of the Leadership Dialogue are to discuss the transformation of food systems to deliver healthy, sustainable and affordable diets as a pathway to ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms for all people, contributing to achieving the SDGs.

The dialogue will help food systems actors to:

• Recognize the political rationale for positioning the health and nutrition of people at the center of policies and programmes to transform food systems leaving no one behind.
• Benefit from knowledge and learning from country-led policy and programme actions to transform food systems for people.
• Renew commitments to transform food systems to secure the right to healthy and nutritious diets for all people.

Moderators of the Dialogue

Francesco Branca: Director, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, WHO

Moderator of the first panel: Abigail Perry, Director of Nutrition, WFP

Moderator of the second panel: Victor Aguayo, Director of Nutrition and Child Development, UNICEF

Speakers

• Ailan LI, Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization
• Patrick Webb, Technical Advisor GLOPAN
• Greg Garrett, Executive Director, Access to Nutrition Initiative
• Karima Al Hada’s, Yemen SUN Planning and Liaison Specialist & ExCom Member, Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation
• Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO (TBC)
• Simón Barquera, Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Center, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP)
• Patrick Amoth, Director General of Health, Kenya
• Maria Rosario Vergeire, Under Secretary of Health, the Philippines
• Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development, Norway

Registration

The Leadership Dialogue is hybrid and interactive with in-person participation at the premises of the FAO in Rome; it will be broadcasted (with interpretation in all UN languages) on the UNFSS+2 virtual campus. Registration for the campus is open and accessible here.