Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2)

On Friday, 21 November, ICN2 concluded the general debate, and then heard presentations on the pre-session events. Reporting on the 18 November Parliamentary Meeting, Pier Ferdinando Casini, Honorary President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and President of the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Senate, Italy, highlighted the urgent need for Parliaments to advocate for more effective responses to address malnutrition, while ensuring that public policies are safeguarded from real or perceived conflict of interests.

Three civil society representatives presented the conclusions of the 17-18 November Civil Society Event. Josephine Atangana, Regional Platform of Central African Farmers Organization, called it “unacceptable” that in a world of plenty so many go to bed hungry, and deploring that ICN1 “sunk without a trace,” expressed hope that ICN2 would not meet the same fate. Munkhbolor Gungaa, World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous People, called for, inter alia: policy coherence between the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Strategic Framework and ICN2, noting that the UN CFS is the most inclusive government-led platform to address nutrition; and ensuring that food and nutrition security are fully integrated into the post-2015 development agenda. Flavio Valente Secretary-General, FIAN International, said that trade and investment agreements must comply with the right to food and nutrition, and declared a worldwide People’s Decade of Action on Nutrition.

Three private sector representatives then presented on the conclusions of the 18 November Private Sector Event. David Crean, Mars Incorporated and speaking for the Private Sector Mechanism, focused on food safety as one of the most significant and pervasive problems in sustainable development efforts, and said food security cannot be achieved without it. Marie Konate, Protein-Kissée-La on behalf of the SUN Business Network, said women are critical to nutrition, as well as to the private sector’s contribution to nutrition. Nico Van Belzen, International Dairy Federation on behalf of the Livestock Sector, discussed opportunities for public private partnerships (PPPs), including enabling environments, for example improving information systems and providing information on nutrient content.

Co-Chairs’ summaries of the three roundtables were then presented. Presenting on the roundtable on nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda, Co-Chair Anne Peniston, US Agency for International Development (USAID), noted the call for UN agencies and others to revisit the proposed SDGs and indicators, consider more ambitious targets, and develop more robust systems to measure progress toward achieving nutrition goals at local, national and global levels.

Regarding the roundtable on improving policy coherence for nutrition, Co-Chair Igor Radziewicz-Winnicki, Ministry of Health, Poland, said policy coherence for nutrition is a challenge, there is no “one size fits all” approach, and policies should reflect specific national settings and cultural environment.

Regarding the roundtable on governance and accountability for nutrition, Co-Chair Hans Brattskar, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Norway, said that the signs of malnutrition are often invisible, malnutrition is often poorly measured and reported, and nutrition has become everyone’s business and no one’s responsibility, with lack of clarity regarding who is accountable for nutrition in existing governance structures.

In conclusion, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva emphasized the need for adequate financing to put the framework for action into practice. He discussed next steps, including a Decade of Nutrition and the Expo Milano 2015 with support from the UN system.

ICN2 closed at approximately 2:15 pm

The IISD RS summary report of ICN2 will be available on Monday, 24 November 2014.