Egypt takes the lead in advancing the nutrition portfolio
On Wednesday 19th of October, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was to make some key decisions on advancing nutrition. Egypt has played a leading role in the CFS’s engagement in this area. As an Egyptian, I was particularly interested in knowing more about the process so far. I spoke with Mr. Khaled El Taweel, Egypt’s Representative ahead of the Wednesday session.
The renewed focus on nutrition began last year when members at the 42nd CFS plenary agreed to identify opportunities arising from the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action adopted at the 2nd International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2).
Mr. Khaled El Taweel chaired the Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Nutrition. The Working Group was responsible for developing the proposal for CFS engagement to be submitted this week. The Group also defined the scope for a High Level Report on “Nutrition and Food Systems” to be launched at CFS 44 in 2017.
Malnutrition is a particular problem in Egypt where stunting affects around 20% of children under five and as many as 28% of children born in Upper Egypt where poverty prevails. Obesity is another issue that is common in poor urban areas. A recent study conducted on Egyptian mothers, has established a link between mothers’ obesity with children’s stunting. The problem of malnutrition in Egypt is the result of so many other intertwined issues: poverty, an absence of nutrition awareness, degradation of agricultural land, and the high dependency on imported commodities. More recently soaring food prices have added to the mix.
Read the full post on the CFS blog here.
Blogpost by Tarek Soliman #CFS43 Social Reporter – tareksoliman143(at)gmail.com
This post is part of the live coverage during the 43rd Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), a project GFAR is running in collaboration with CFS. This post is written by one of our social reporters, and represents the author’s views only.
Photo courtesy the National Cancer Institute
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This is a good testimony, I am a member of ICN2 and hope to attend this years event if I will be supported to attend, I hope GFAR will support some of us to attend,date is 1-2 Dec 2016.
Hi Lizzy, unfortunately, GFAR only has limited funds to support people to attend events. For those instances where we do, we work together with YPARD, to fund some of their members’ travel and accommodation. So please stay in touch with YPARD.net to get info on upcoming opportunities! — Best, Peter