The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger participated on 16-17 November in the Regional Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition. Around 180 participants from 25 countries participated in the event held in Côte d’Ivoire to recognize the long-term benefits of sustainable food systems for healthier diets and improved nutrition on the socio-economic development of Africa. It provided a platform for stakeholders discuss the implementation of programmes and initiatives to impact nutrition and health.
The director of the WFP Centre of Excellence, Daniel Balaban, moderated a panel on strengthening policies and improving knowledge, attitudes and practices for healthier and safer diets throughout the lifecycle to address all forms of malnutrition. Balaban highlighted to participants the importance of an intersectoral approach on nutrition to achieve Africa’s goals in this area.
The regional symposium happened after the international symposium on sustainable food systems for healthy diets and improved nutrition held in 2016. The event called for context-specific regional symposia to explore concrete regional and national experiences on how to identify gaps and improve current and future food systems to deliver healthy, safe and nutritionally balanced diet for populations.
The discussions were part of the activities of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025), which aims to mobilize support to eradicate malnutrition in all its forms. It was also in line with the Malabo Declaration, the African Union Agenda 2063, the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (ARNS) 2016-2025 and the Africa Renewed Initiative on Stunting Elimination (ARISE) – all of which seek to address nutrition issues of the continent and are aligned to global nutrition commitment, including the SDGs.
The Regional Symposium on sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition was organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization.
African Development Bank
In Côte d’Ivoire, Daniel Balaban had a meeting with the director for partnerships of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Benedict Kanu, to discuss ways to establish a partnership between the Bank and the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger to support African countries in their efforts to achieve food security and nutrition.
During the meeting, Mr Balaban presented the WFP Centre’s methodology and achievements in the African continent, including the partnership with the African Union. Mr Kanu stated that the Bank will support all efforts for Africa to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17, which aim at Zero Hunger and cooperation among countries. He also said that the AfDB is ready to study potential partnerships with the WFP Centre of Excellence towards these two SDGs.