Today, more than 820 million people do not have enough to eat. It is unacceptable that hunger is on the rise at a time when the world wastes more than 1 billion tonnes of food every year. It is time to change how we produce and consume, including to reduce greenhouse emissions. Transforming food systems is crucial for delivering all the Sustainable Development Goals.
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Message on World Food Day 2019
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2014-2016.
The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) took place in November 2014 in Rome with the theme “Better Nutrition, Better Lives”. The Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action were established, aimed to create and strengthen national policies to eliminate malnutrition in all its forms, by transforming food systems to make diverse and healthy diets available to all. Following, the United Nations Global Nutrition Agenda was launched and linked to the ICN2 outcomes, alongside the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, and outlined contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations Global Nutrition Agenda (UNGNA), launched in June 2015 by the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), aligns UN agencies in support of global and national nutrition goals. The UNGNA aims to strengthen overall action towards the goal of ending malnutrition in all its forms. The Agenda highlights the ten core principles, guiding the United Nation’s work on nutrition, including that good nutrition is important for education systems, social protection, and efforts to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality.
Scaling Up Nutrition, or SUN, is a unique Movement included in the UNGNA, founded on the principle that all people have a right to food and good nutrition. It brings people together—from governments, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses, and researchers—in an effort to improve nutrition. Countries are putting the right guidelines in place, working alongside partners to implement programs with shared nutrition goals, and organizing resources to effectively scale up nutrition.
September 2015 marked the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda calls in Goal 2 to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. By 2030, the success of this goal will end hunger and ensure that all people have access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year. Delivering on the promise of the 2030 Agenda will not be possible without focused progress towards ending hunger and undernutrition.