CFS endorses Voluntary guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition

CFS endorses Voluntary guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has announced the first-ever Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. This aiming to support countries and others in their efforts to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition by utilizing a comprehensive food systems approach. The endorsement took place during the CFS 47th Session.

What is CFS?

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is an intergovernmental body to serve as a forum in the United Nations System for review and follow-up of policies concerning world food security including production and physical and economic access to food. It was established in 1974 and reformed in 2009 as the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. It has a permanent Secretariat. It is located in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy.

About the guidelines

• The Voluntary Guidelines represent a unique tool addressing malnutrition across the entire agri-food systems in a coherent and holistic manner.
• These guidelines will support countries in their efforts to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition.
• It will utilize a comprehensive food systems approach for this aim. It will be built upon the existing work and mandate of other international bodies. For example, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and Sustainable Development Goal (2) of ‘Zero Hunger’.

Focus areas of the guidelines

The recommendations contained in the Voluntary Guidelines focus on

• promoting transparent and accountable governance
• sustainable supply chains
• equal and equitable access to healthy diets through sustainable food systems
• food safety across the sustainable food systems
• nutrition knowledge
• education and information
• gender equality and women's empowerment and
• building resilience of food systems in humanitarian context

Significance of the guidelines:

• Guidelines call for the realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security for all. Its particular focus is on the most vulnerable and affected groups.
• The guidelines are intended to build upon and complement the work and mandate of other international bodies, for example the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025) and Sustainable Development Goal (2) of ‘Zero Hunger’.
• They focus on policy planning and governance so that food systems can be made more resilient and responsive and are in accordance with needs of consumers and producers too, especially small and marginal farmers.

Significance of Food systems approach

Food systems shape people's dietary patterns and nutritional status. They are a complex web of activities involving production, processing, handling, preparation, storage, distribution, marketing, access, purchase, consumption, food loss and waste, as well as the outputs of these activities, including social, economic and environmental outcomes. CFS is the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all, hosted and co-funded by FAO.