On 7 June, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger took part in a virtual meeting aimed at exchanging best practices in governance to drive forward the Action Coalition on Healthy Diets from Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems.
The coalition is one of the initiatives launched following the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and forms part of a group of action coalitions established to accelerate the transformation of food systems (among which the Coalition on School Feeding stands out; it currently brings together more than 110 countries and is co-chaired by Brazil, France and Finland).
The Coalition on Healthy Diets is jointly coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN-Nutrition, a United Nations inter-agency mechanism (in which the WFP participates) aimed at promoting nutrition on global and national policy agendas.
Brazil is among the member countries and also sits on the initiative’s steering committee. Key areas of focus include strengthening the supply of healthy foods, improving food environments and promoting policies that prioritise healthy diets produced by sustainable systems.
Challenge
According to UN-Nutrition, the creation of the coalition is a response to a worrying situation: poor diets are linked to around 11 million deaths per year worldwide, whilst more than 3 billion people are still unable to afford a healthy diet.
Furthermore, the fragmentation of public policies and actions relating to food, health, agriculture and the environment makes it difficult to develop integrated responses to these challenges.
The coalition seeks to promote a world in which everyone has access to healthy diets from sustainable food systems, making such food available, accessible, appealing and economically viable for the entire population.
Healthy diet
A healthy diet is one that contributes to people’s health and well-being whilst respecting the planet’s environmental limits.
In practice, this means prioritising nutritious foods produced responsibly, with a lower impact on natural resources, and promoting food systems capable of ensuring food and nutritional security for current and future generations.
The coalition advocates for coordinated actions involving food production, healthier food environments, and education and awareness-raising initiatives to enhance people’s ability to make healthy and sustainable food choices.