Summary “From Healthy Waters to Healthy People”
Summary of the Meeting "From Healthy Waters to Healthy People"
Action for sustainable food systems for a healthy diet has been called for in the WHO/FAO work plan for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. As a follow up Norway invited countries to jointly set up an informal Global Action Network on Sustainable Food from the Oceans and Inland waters for Food Security and Nutrition. The network will facilitate actions towards the goals, countries have committed themselves to, in the Rome declaration from the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the targets for Non Communicable Disease (NCDs). A first meeting, called “From the Healthy Waters to Healthy People, was held at FAO Head Quarter in Rome July 5th, 2018. Representatives from ministries and other governmental institutions together with stakeholders were invited to join the meeting. More than 160 people from 60 countries signed up. Also the UN organizations UNE, WHO, FAO, Codex and UNSCN were present.
The objectives of the meeting were:
- to gather interested parties and invite member countries to join the network,
- to discuss the concept,
- to identify and consider important actions on the elements of food security, and how the network can address these holistically, from healthy waters to healthy people,
- to get input to the Networks ambitions, goal(s) and objectives, and what the network might accomplish,
- discuss on working methods and suggest next step.
The meeting included a high-level session, with speakers from UNE, FAO and WHO, and a thematic session with short presentations of the elements of food security (enough food, safe food, nutritious food, dietary needs, food preferences and leaving no one behind). Actions that can increase the nutritional impacts of food from the oceans and inland waters was presented. Finally there was a networking session with inputs from experienced networkers and from the perspective of other stakeholders on how these might contribute towards common goals. During the networking sessions the objectives listed above were discussed. A concept document was prepared to the meeting. Comments were consistent with this document. However many remarks were put forward about themes the network should focus on that will be taken into account in further work. A more in-depth summary of inputs during the meeting will follow, and will function as a background document in further discussions.
As a follow up to the first meeting, member countries that decides to be a part of the network, will be invited to a meeting in Rome during the same week as the meeting in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in October to formally establish the network and to announce its members. This meeting will be prepared electronically. Once fully operational, the network will decide how the network will engage with other stakeholders. A deadline was set for interested countries to sign up to the network no later than September 15th, 2018. This can be done by sending an e-mail with the name of the focal point to the network organizer: foodfromtheocean@nfd.dep.no