UN highlights the importance of working with the private sector to ensure a healthier world population
Partnerships are crucial to fighting malnutrition, stressed Nancy Stetson, US special representative for global food security, during the US-led “Dialogue on Nutrition” held at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) this week.
The event was the first in a series of three public discussions leading up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in November 2014.
The event saw representatives from the private sector and civil society emphasise on the importance of effective partnerships to ensure adequate nutrition for the world.
“Nutrition has to be an ongoing focus for future generations and administrations. We cannot make a sustained impact at home or abroad without partnerships,” said Stetson.
Highlighting the importance of collaboration with the private sector, Louise Kantrow, permanent representative to the United Nations of the International Chamber of Commerce said, “The UN has recognised that the problems confronting the global community now know no boundaries and all actors in society must come to the table and provide inputs.”
FAO Deputy Director-General Daniel Gustafson, meanwhile, highlighted that "good nutrition must begin with agriculture."
"We know a lot more than we knew in 1992, at the first International Conference on Nutrition, what works and doesn't work, and we have a lot more analysis of what needs to be done," he added.
The dialogue on nutrition will be followed by two additional pre-ICN2 meetings, on October 22 and 30, led by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the G77, respectively.
ICN2 will take place from November 19-21 at FAO headquarters in Rome.
Malnutrition in South Asia: poverty, diet or lack of female empowerment?
Nutrition policies in Developing Countries: challenges and highlights
HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition) report 2011
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