Scope and purpose
To provide evidence-informed WHO guidance on effective policy measures to support Member States in developing enabling food environment to promote healthy diets and nutrition, NFS established in 2018 the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Subgroup on Policy Actions.
The Unit on Multisectoral Action in Food Systems (AFS) serves as the Secretariat of the NUGAG Subgroup on Policy Actions, which is the WHO guideline development group for guidelines on food environment policies. The first meeting was held in December 2018, followed by a second meeting in December 2019 during which the undertaking of policy guidelines in the following areas was prioritized: nutrition labelling policies, policies to restrict marketing to children, fiscal policies and school food and nutrition policies.
A series of virtual meetings were held to progress the work of the NUGAG. The WHO guideline on policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing was launched in June 2023, and the WHO guideline on fiscal policies to promote healthy diets in July 2024. A public consultation will be launched on the WHO guideline on nutrition labelling policies in September 2024.
The evidence that informs the current draft guideline on school food and nutrition policies includes literature up to mid-2020. Considering the growing evidence on school food and nutrition, in particular during and after the COVID-19 pandemic it was decided to conduct a rapid update of the systematic literature review. A rapid search update was conducted to identify and describe new studies published since the original search of the systematic review that informed the guideline and presented in the 7th NUGAG meeting held on 08 February 2024. The results of the rapid review are now ready to be presented and discussed with the NUGAG Subgroup on Policy Actions, and to finalize the WHO guideline on school food and nutrition policies.
Objective and expected outcomes
The objectives of the eighth meeting are to:
- review the results of the rapid search update of the systematic review on the effectiveness of school food and nutrition policies, and
- finalize the recommendations and remarks of the guideline on school food and nutrition policies
The expected outcome of the eighth meeting is to finalize the recommendations and remarks of the guidelines on school food and nutrition policies.