WEBINAR: Addressing healthy diets and climate change in the Near East and Northern Africa

5 October 2021. NENA Regional network on nutrition: virtual event on "Addressing healthy diets and climate change.

There is need to better understand the links between climate change and nutrition in the context of the agri-food system in the NENA region. A clearer picture of how climate change affects nutrition, and how the agri-food system in turn affects climate change, offers an opportunity to use policies, investments and interventions in ways that are mutually beneficial for climate and nutrition agendas. There is also need to have enhanced capacity to develop and implement climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems to ensure that adaptation and mitigation strategies take nutrition and diet into account, and vice versa. Investments, policy coherence, institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration between environment, agriculture and health are needed to address the impact of climate change to food and nutrition security. The possibilities include engagement with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, and addressing nutrition and health outcomes through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF).

In the framework of its Regional Network on Nutrition-sensitive Food Systems, FAO Regional Office for Near East and North Africa (FAO RNE) organized a virtual dialogue on “Addressing healthy diets and climate change”. The meeting was attended by senior officials of sectoral ministries (agriculture, environment, health and finance). In addition, it is expected to have participation of GEF and GCF country focal points. Various stakeholders and partner institutions working on climate change, agriculture, environment and nutrition participated in the debate.

• Moderator Ms Theresa Wong, Climate Change and Sustainability Officer, FAO RNE (50 minutes)
• Keynote Presentation on “Climate Change and Healthy Diets” by Dr Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food and Agriculture Policy and Ethics, Director, Global Food Ethics and Policy Program, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA (15 minutes)
• Dr Rami Zurayk, Professor, Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management Department, the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon (former Member of the Steering Committee of the HLPE and a Commissioner of EAT-Lancet Commission on health diets from sustainable food systems)
• Dr Chandrashekhar Biradar, Research Team Leader and Principal Scientist, GeoAgro for Sustainable Agroecosystems, ICARDA
• Dr Kibrom Abay, Country Program Leader and Research Fellow, IFPRI, Egypt
• H.E. Thanawat Tiensin, Chair of the Committee of the World Food Security (CFS) and Permanent Representative of Royal Government of Thailand

Ressource:

FAO. 2021. NENA Regional Network on Nutrition-Sensitive Food System – Technical Brief: Building resilience and protecting diets in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Cairo.

During emergencies, many children are admitted to specialized treatment centres (Therapeutic and Supplementary Feeding Centres) due to the acute and severe nutrition situation and receive life-saving support. Knowledge of nutritional requirements and proper feeding and caring practices is essential for the recovery of these children. However, families and caregivers often face difficulties in caring for children after the discharge due to the lack of knowledge on how to feed and care for children during humanitarian emergencies. Therefore, resilience and emergency response operations can add value by integrating nutrition education and improved feeding and caring practices for infant and young children as part of the interventions.