SIXTY-NINTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY Provisional agenda item 12.1
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Maternal, infant and young child nutrition United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025) Report by the Secretariat
1. On 1 April 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 70/259 entitled “United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025)”, in which, inter alia, it: • decides to proclaim 2016–2025 the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, within existing structures and available resources; • endorses the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action;1 • invites Governments and other relevant stakeholders to actively support the implementation of the Decade, including through voluntary contributions, as appropriate. 2. This report describes the assignments given to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO in the resolution and outlines how FAO and WHO plan to jointly respond to these assignments.
ASSIGNMENTS GIVEN TO FAO AND WHO 3. The resolution calls on FAO and WHO to complete the following assignments: • to lead the implementation of the Decade of Action on Nutrition in collaboration with the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the United Nations Children’s Fund, and using coordination mechanisms such as the Standing Committee on Nutrition and multistakeholder platforms such as the Committee on World Food Security, in line with its mandate, and in consultation with other international and regional organizations and platforms; • to identify and develop a work programme based on the Rome Declaration and its Framework for Action, along with its means of implementation for 2016–2025;
See, respectively, http://www.fao.org/3/a-ml542e.pdf and http://www.fao.org/3/a-mm215e.pdf; both texts were endorsed by the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in resolution WHA68.19 (2015) (http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/ pdf_files/WHA68-REC1/A68_R1_REC1-en.pdf#page=104) (all accessed 15 April 2016).
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• to compile jointly biennial reports that will serve to inform the United Nations General Assembly about the implementation of the Decade of Action on Nutrition.
LEADING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECADE OF ACTION ON NUTRITION 4. The goal of the Decade of Action on Nutrition is to increase activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels in order to implement the actions recommended in the Framework for Action, endorsed by the Second International Conference on Nutrition (Rome 19–21 November 2014), so as to achieve existing global targets for improving maternal, infant and young child nutrition and reduce noncommunicable disease risk factors by 20251 and to attain by 2030 the corresponding targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.2 5. FAO and WHO are working together to establish an open and inclusiveness process to call on Member States, organizations of the United Nations system and other international organizations and platforms, and non-State actors to contribute to achieving the goal of the Decade of Action on Nutrition with concrete commitments. These commitments should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, and their implementation and impact be tracked and monitored, by means of existing indicators. FAO and WHO, in collaboration with other organizations of the United Nations system, are also cooperating in order to provide examples of commitments. 6. The Standing Committee on Nutrition and the Committee on World Food Security, as well as other international and regional organizations and platforms, including the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, in line with their mandates and priorities, will be instrumental in advocating for commitments to be made, honoured and monitored.
DEVELOPMENT OF A WORK PROGRAMME 7. The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition will be officially launched by FAO and WHO in July 2016. 8. A first commitment conference will be convened on the occasion of the start of the General Debate of the seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2016. Based on the commitments made at that conference, FAO and WHO will prepare a work programme for the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, along with its means of implementation for 2016 – 2025, in accordance with the modalities set out in resolution 70/259. The work programme will be updated periodically.
COMPILING BIENNIAL REPORTS 9. Biennial reports on the progress made in implementing resolution 70/259 will be drafted jointly by WHO and FAO with inputs from other organizations of the United Nations system, for
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In accordance with paragraph 2 of the Rome Declaration.
2 United Nations General Assembly resolution 70/1 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
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consideration by Member States, through the governing bodies of both FAO and WHO, as well as in other relevant intergovernmental fora, such as the Committee on World Food Security. 10. These reports will be based on data from national nutritional surveys compiled by WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank and on country policy self-assessments. WHO is conducting regular global nutrition policy reviews, based on the responses received to questionnaires sent to countries. The next review is already under way. FAO also collects information on policy areas related to food and agriculture. WHO will adapt its Global database on the Implementation of Nutrition Action in order to meet the reporting requirements to the General Assembly. FAO will adapt its global databases as well to capture these reporting needs. Both agencies will work towards aligning their global databases in view of covering the 60 recommendations included in the Framework for Action and ensuring easy accessibility to the information by countries. 11. The reports will include the following components: (a) a register of the actions that Member States, international partners and non-State actors commit themselves to implementing (b) reports on progress in implementing policies and programmes underway to fulfil the national commitments (c) a quantitative data set based on agreed international indicators for nutrition outcomes, the nutrition policy environment, and nutrition programme implementation, including the Global Nutrition Monitoring Framework endorsed by the Health Assembly.1 12. The information contained in these reports will also serve as an input into the note by the United Nations Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Directors-General of FAO and WHO on the progress made in implementing resolution 70/259.
ACTION BY THE HEALTH ASSEMBLY 13. The Health Assembly is invited to note the report.
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See decisions WHA67(9) (2014) and WHA68(14) (2015).
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