UN General Assembly proclaims ‘Decade of Action on Nutrition’
The resolution, which was co-sponsored by 30 members, will provide an umbrella for a wider group of parties to work together to address hunger and other pressing nutrition issues.
It calls on a number of UN bodies, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation, to lead the charge.
"This resolution places nutrition at the heart of sustainable development and recognises improving food security and nutrition are essential to achieving the entire 2030 agenda," FAO director-general José Graziano da Silva said.
"Children can't fully reap the benefits of schooling if they don't get the nutrients they need; and emerging economies won't reach their full potential if their workers are chronically tired because their diets are unbalanced. That's why we welcome the Decade of Action on Nutrition and look forward to helping make it a success.”
According to UN figures, nearly 800m people remain chronically undernourished and over 2bn suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Meanwhile some 159m children under five years of age are stunted, and approximately 50m more are wasted.
Conversely, another 1.9bn people are overweight, with 600m of these obese, and the prevalence of people who are overweight or obese is increasing in nearly all countries.
"We consider the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition a great opportunity to bring together initiatives and efforts to eradicate hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition, crucial elements of the 2030 Agenda,” said Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Brazil's permanent representative to the United Nations.
“We encourage UN agencies, member states, civil society and the private sector to join in this collective effort. We look forward to engage in this process, sharing information on our national policies and learning from other experiences."
