A Guidance Note On Nutrition For United Nations Country Teams Their Government Counterparts And Other Stakeholders

The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) supports the mainstreaming of nutrition into national development plans and activities to strengthen agriculture, food, health, education and social protection systems, among other things. This guidance note helps integrating nutrition across the UNSDCF cycle. It is designed to be flexible and applicable in all phases of the Cooperation Framework, highlighting opportunities to integrate and strengthen the focus on nutrition throughout the process. The guidance note complements other existing tools developed by specialized United Nations’ agencies, programmes and funds, as well as by the UN-Nutrition Secretariat, and it can be equally utilized in countries under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) or the UNSDCF.

A solid understanding of domestic political economy helps to promote policies that are better adapted to country realities. The challenges that many governments faced in responding to food price volatility during the 2008 global food crisis re-focused attention on the political economy and implementing effective national policy responses on food security and nutrition. Understanding the political economy behind public policy-making and implementation is crucial to enhancing the effectiveness of policy support to countries and increases the chances of nationally-led reforms that result in better food security and nutrition outcomes. This political economy analysis note is intended to support policy practitioners and other stakeholders in working in a more politically informed way towards a coherent set of policies across relevant sectors. It demonstrates how political economy analysis can add value to policy support work, gives examples of key political economy challenges in food security and nutrition and shres information on the existing frameworks and analysis tools.

This tool does so by briefly explaining the conceptual, legal and operational dimensions of the right to food.

Ghana’s agricultural sector plays a vital role in income generation, foreign exchange earnings, employment, and food security for over 70 percent of its people. Despite the significant role of the crop production sector, limited attention has been given to maximizing its potential to address food insecurity and malnutrition. For that reason, FAO, in collaboration with World Vision, has produced this guidance note on mainstreaming nutrition into the crop production sector using a food systems approach. This guidance note aims to inform national-level policymakers and key participants in the food system on the issues and opportunities relating to Ghana’s fruit and vegetable value chain, with a particular focus on smallholder households.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. A costing exercise is an important early step in planning a national nutrition information system. The exercise helps to specify the resources required for the successful development and implementation of an activity, i.e., the investment of resources and efforts required to build a functioning national nutrition information system. This technical note outlines key steps that countries can take to cost their nutrition information systems.

With the aim of enhancing nutrition sensitivity in Global Environment Facility (GEF) investments and programming, this guidance note is based on a review of 12 purposively selected GEF-6 and GEF-7 projects within the FAO portfolio identified as having the potential to be nutrition-sensitive. Following an agrifood systems approach, the guidance note provides a list of potential opportunities for action that could be considered in GEF project design to ensure nutrition gains are achieved as co-benefits alongside the formally set global environmental benefit (GEB) targets. The note is the result of the collaboration between the Food and Nutrition Division of FAO and the FAO OCB-GEF Coordination Unit.

This series of technical notes is produced on different topics of a national nutrition information system (NNIS) that are included in the first-ever global guidance on NNIS published in 2021. While the fundamental modules of the guidance describe the basics of a NNIS, each technical note deals with a specific topical area and presents details on those topics. The technical notes will help design and implement a NNIS and/or integrate a nutrition information system in the existing health management information system. A strong core team is an essential aspect of building and operating a useful NNIS. It can positively influence critical aspects of an NNIS, including its governance, management, design, operations, scale-up and sustainability. The right core team also have a positive effect on communications, productivity, accountability, and the use of data for decision-making. This technical note provides a set of useful tips on design, governance, operations, and key activities of a core team for an NNIS.

The Right to Food Guidelines provide practical guidance on ways to implement the right to adequate food in a wide range of policy and programmes areas through a human rights-based approach. Since the adoption of the Right to Food Guidelines, FAO and its partners have produced a wealth of tools, strengthened capacity, and facilitated multi-stakeholder dialogues worldwide. But the goal of realizing the right to food of everyone is not accomplished yet- over 820 million people are currently suffering from chronic hunger. This fifteen-Year Retrospective on the Right to Food Guidelines helps us look back and understand what has worked and why, where the bottlenecks lie, and how governments and their partners can be most effective in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.