A/HRC/19/59
12.
The agrifood systems must be reshaped to address these challenges of
malnutrition—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition—not in isolation,
but concurrently. Malnutrition in all its forms cannot be addressed only by a food sciences
approach, such as through the provision of ready-to-use therapeutic foods or micronutrientenriched ―health foods‖ to combat micronutrient deficiency or the negative health impacts
of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, sodium and sugar (―HFSS‖ foods).
Ensuring adequate availability of and accessibility to fruits and vegetables and diets that are
sufficiently diverse and balanced across food groups requires the rebuilding of agrifood
systems. This means prioritizing access to adequate diets that are socially and
environmentally sustainable over the mere provision of cheap calories. Any intervention
seeking to address the diverse forms of malnutrition described above should be assessed
against the requirement that it favour, and does not create obstacles to, such a
reprioritization.
III. Addressing micronutrient deficiency
A.
Recent nutrition-focused initiatives
13.
A number of recent efforts have sought to address micronutrient deficiency, moving
beyond the classic focus on low calorie intake. The World Food Programme and the United
Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF) launched in 2006 the Ending Child Hunger and
Undernutrition Initiative. In 2008, FAO, WHO and UNICEF launched the Renewed Efforts
against Child Hunger and Undernutrition (REACH) initiative, which aims to scale up
interventions addressing child undernutrition through the coordinated action of United
Nations agencies, civil society, donors and the private sector, under country-led plans. The
Secretary-General‘s 22-member High-Level Task Force on Food Security has now updated
the Comprehensive Framework for Action so that it explicitly addresses food and nutrition
security with a focus on links between agriculture, food systems and nutritional outcomes.
Finally, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) multi-stakeholder initiative, which was launched in
2009 and has gained momentum since the presentation of the SUN Framework in April
2010, seeks to promote targeted action and investment to improve nutrition for mothers and
children in the 1,000-day period from pregnancy to age 2, when better nutrition can have a
life-changing impact on a child‘s future.
14.
In addition to encouraging Governments to adopt national plans to scale up nutrition
in their various sectoral policies, SUN includes the establishment of partnerships linking
business, civil society and Government to foster scaling up nutrition through nutritionsensitive interventions along the value chain at the country level. Private-sector
interventions include the production of fortified food products, the promotion of
nutritionally healthy behaviour, the shaping of work environments allowing women to
ensure good nutrition for themselves and their children, ensuring that lower-income groups
can access nutritionally valuable products, and building local capacity through the transfer
of knowledge and technology. Some of these partnerships are supported by the Global
Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). A public-private partnership, GAIN was launched
at the 2002 special session of the General Assembly on children. It has since established
links with 600 companies across 36 large projects in more than 25 countries to improve
access to missing micronutrients in diets. According to GAIN promoters, it reaches nearly
400 million people with nutritionally enhanced food products.
9
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