Tag: Food Systems and Nutrition Working Group

Draft for negotiations CFS Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition Download the Draft here Russian||French||Chinese||Spanish||Arabic Message from the Chair of the CFS Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG)  on Food Systems and Nutrition (16 March 2020) It is my pleasure to present you with a revised version of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems for Nutrition (VGFSYN), which will serve as the basis for upcoming negotiation sessions planned for May and July 2020, respectively. I would like to warmly thank all those CFS stakeholders for the comments provided during the last OEWG meeting and for the written inputs on Draft One that were used for the preparation of this revised version.We received 66 contributions with very accurate and detailed suggestions and comments. We did our best to incorporate them while trying to keep the document at a manageable length. Please note that, to show more clearly that our objective is to present guidance on how food system transformations can promote improved nutrition, the title of the VGFSyN has been slightly modified (Food Systems FOR Nutrition). The structure of the first two Parts was modified to ensure a more logical flow between the sections. In addition to the background and rationale where the problem statement is presented, Part One now includes a number of key concepts concerning food systems and nutrition. In this regard, definitions of healthy diets, sustainable healthy diets and nutritious foods were included to set the context for the policy convergence process and its key objectives. I firmly believe that CFS by its nature and its area of expertise is best positioned to be innovative in terms of food security and nutrition concepts. In Part Two, the text was reviewed in particular to avoid inconsistencies and redundancies with language in Part One, while additional elements were incorporated based on inputs provided by CFS stakeholders. A pair of guiding principles were eliminated as they were considered to be actions, more than principles. Part Three was substantially modified to incorporate the comments and suggestions that we received, trying to keep the length manageable. Additional paragraphs were added to respond to the expectation of many stakeholders about the food system approach, the nature of the evidence used for the design of the proposed Voluntary Guidelines and to highlight the need to analyze the potential transition costs, benefits, and trade-offs of actions taken across sectors. Connections between the different focus areas are now better explained, and each sub-section is introduced by a more detailed paragraph highlighting the relevance of issues addressed therein.

First Draft of CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition   On 20th December 2019 the First Draft of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition were published. Translations in other UN languages will be available in January 2020. This draft is the result of all inputs received during CFS OEWG’s meetings, Regional Consultations and the online consultation! The document will serve as a basis for the first OEWG meeting of 2020 on 29th of January! Find here the First Draft of the Voluntary Guidelines! Also available in Russian, Chinese and Arabic! Find here the workplan of the policy convergence process!   ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Letter from the Chair of the Food Systems and Nutrition OEWG, Dr. Liliane Ortega, (Switzerland)  It is my pleasure to present you with Draft One of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (VGFSyN), which is the product of intensive work done by a wide range of CFS stakeholders. FSyN is being proposed to differentiate from FSN which is broadly know as an abbreviation for Food Security and Nutrition.  Draft One incorporates comments and suggestions provided on the Zero Draft during the OEWG meeting held on 30 May as well as written inputs received by the CFS Secretariat following that meeting. It also reflects outcomes of the E-Consultation that took place between July and September 2019, and contributions received during regional consultations that took place in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Budapest, Cairo, Panama City, and Washington DC. These consultations provided additional perspectives and ideas on how best to align the VGFSyN with regional and national priorities and needs.  The introductory part has been further articulated by better presenting the context around which the VGFSyN are prepared and the issues they intend to address. Specific text on the major impact of poverty and inequality, climate change, diets and new consumption trends has been included in Part One, as well as indications on the consistency of the VGFSyN with international human rights instruments.  Following the OEWG meeting held in May, Part Two on key concepts and guiding principles now includes for your consideration a definition of sustainable and healthy diets which is adapted from a technical document recently released by FAO and WHO. An additional guiding principle on governance and accountability has been included to reflect many requests presented by CFS stakeholders.  As communicated in all of these consultations and meetings, the heart of the draft

CSM Nutrition Working Group – Preliminary Position  January 2016 This brief document aims to provide an initial conceptual framing to the CSM preparations for the CFS Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Nutrition. While waiting for the final proposal of the Technical Task Team, the CSM Working Group agreed to define an initial set of driving principles and ideas that could lead the CSM engagement in the OEWG process. Preamble Understanding the challenge of malnutrition in all its forms requires a holistic and multidisciplinary analysis, one that combines the political and technical perspectives. Above all, it requires recognizing the need for urgency and justice, the appreciation for diversity and the values of human dignity, equity, sustainability and sovereignty. It is our common understanding that food is the expression of values, cultures, social relations and people’s self-determination, and that the act of feeding oneself and others embodies our sovereignty, ownership and empowerment. When nourishing oneself and eating with one’s family, friends, and community, we reaffirm our cultural identities, our ownership over our life course and our human dignity. Nutrition is foundational for personal development and essential for overall wellbeing. 1.     Role of the CFS in the global architecture of nutrition governance 1.1 Policy coherence: The prime legitimate intergovernmental policy spaces that have a mandate on nutrition are the FAO Conference[1] (food angle of nutrition), the World Health Assembly (health angle of nutrition)[2] and the CFS (policy coherence, across different policy domains, with the UN charter and with human rights/the right to adequate food and nutrition), in addition to the UN General Assembly (which delegates to its subsidiary bodies and specialized spaces in-depth thematic discussions). In reality, only the WHA and CODEX, and to a lesser extent the FAO Conference, played regular roles in nutrition policy making in recent years, though many agencies and programmes often transcended their implementation functions and contributed to establishing policies through their operations, despite not having a normative mandate. While this state of affairs generated significant fragmentation, it also means that there is no other legitimate body other than the CFS (unless one calls in the General Assembly) that is responsible for policy coherence (with the UN charter and the human rights framework) on nutrition. It is therefore important to “debug” the on-going narrative that suggests that the CFS needs to “find a niche and avoid duplication”. The role of the CFS should be complementary to those of