BIODIVERSITY FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION : UPDATE OF ACTIVITIES

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BIODIVERSITY FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION UPDATE OF
ACTIVITIES
Ifeyironwa Francisca Smith, Pablo
Eyzaguirre International Plant Genetic Resources
Institute (IPGRI)
Ifeyironwa Francisca Smith, Tim Johns, Pablo
Eyzaguirre
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Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development

• nutrition is an investment issue not a food
  consumption issue or a welfare issue
• it is something that can drive economic growth
• there is need to build commitment among
  government partners as well, as to not only
  invest in nutrition but invest in the right kinds
  of things for nutrition

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International Consultation, Cross-cutting
Initiative on Biodiversity for Food and
Nutrition, Brasilia 12-13 March 2005

• Co- Hosted by Brazilian Ministries of the
  Environment, Agrarian Development, and Health
• Brazilian NGO and Civil Society Groups working
  with agrarian community livelihoods and
  biodiversity, Slow Food,
• Nutrition, Agricultural, and Biodiversity
  Scientists from Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico,
  Malaysia, Canada
• UNEP-CBD, FAO, IPGRI, IFAD, UNU, IUNS, Bilateral
  partners

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MDGs and the Double Burden of Disease Related to
Malnutrition and Environment

• Simplification of Diets, and Poor Quality Diets
• Simplification of Ecosystems
• Loss or declining use of biodiversity components
  for sustainable livelihoods and household food
  security
• Identify and use local sources for combating
  nutrition and health problems
• Build on local capacities and empowerment of
  communities to manage food and nutrition
  resources available within their ecosystems and
  mediated by and supportive of their food cultures.

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THE REASON WE ARE HERE

• SCNs vision, mandate, and principles include
  facilitating the integration of nutrition
  interventions into global and national
  initiatives, and the integration of nutrition
  into national and global development agendas.
• Biodiversity provides additional resources and
  approaches to combat malnutrition, hunger and
  poverty.
• The next steps are to build these linkages
  between nutrition, health, agriculture, and
  biodiversity.

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BIODIVERSITY FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION Main conclusions of the consultation on the CBD cross-cutting initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition, organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute Brasilia, Brazil, 12 13 March, 2005.
Call for Action Biodiversity is essential for
food security and nutrition and offers key
options for sustainable livelihoods.
Environmental integrity is critical for
maintaining and building positive options for
human well-being. Existing knowledge warrants
immediate action to promote the sustainable use
of biodiversity in food security and nutrition
programmes, as a contribution to the achievement
of the Millennium Development Goals. This would
counteract the simplification of diets,
agricultural systems and ecosystems, and the
erosion of food cultures. Considering the
difficulty in precisely identifying optimal
diets, a diversity of foods from plants and
animals remains the preferred choice for human
health. Traditional food systems provide
positive synergies between human and ecosystem
health, and culture offers an essential context
for mediating positive dietary choices. An
interdisciplinary initiative on biodiversity for
food and nutrition, based on the ecosystem
approach that makes the most of locally-available
biodiversity and initiative to address nutrition
problems, will assist countries and stakeholders
in achieving the MDGS. Without urgent action
that directly engages the environmental,
agricultural and nutrition and health
communities, biodiversity and the positive
options offered by domesticated and wild
biodiversity for addressing nutrient deficiencies
and the emerging burden of non-communicable
disease will be lost.
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Proposed Actions

• Substantiate and promote awareness of the links
  between biodiversity, dietary diversity, food and
  nutrition
• Mainstream the conservation and sustainable use
  of biodiversity into agendas and programmes
  related to nutrition, agriculture, health and
  poverty reduction
• Promote activities that contribute to improving
  food security and human nutrition through
  enhanced sustainable use of biodiversity

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An Update of Activities

• Dietary Diversity Linking traditional foods and
  Plant Genetic Resources to Rural And Urban Health
  in
• Sub-Saharan Africa

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IPGRIs Dietary Diversification Activities

• Dietary diversification projects in Kenya,
  Uganda, Tanzania and Senegal to determine level
  of use of local biodiversity and promote
  increased use
• Targeted ethno-botanical surveys in Uganda
  Tanzania to determine availability, consumption
  and uses of indigenous/traditional foods by
  communities
• African leafy vegetables programme in peri-urban
  and urban Nairobi Kenya, that promotes the
  production and use of indigenous African leafy
  vegetables in diets, including the role of local
  markets supermarkets in increasing access and
  availability of nutritious indigenous/traditional
  foods

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Advocacy and Awareness Creation

• Chennai Consultation on using Biodiversity and
  Neglected Underutilized species to address the
  Millennium Development Goals in health and food
  security, April 2005.
• The CORAF/WECARD Assembly that brought together
  representatives from National Agricultural
  Research Systems (NARS) of 21 countries in West
  and Central Africa, May 2005.
• International Conference on Health and
  Biodiversity (COHAB), August 2005.
• International Union of Nutritional Sciences 18th
  International Congress of Nutrition, September
  2005.
• Regional Workshop on Developing African Leafy
  Vegetables for Improved Nutrition, December 2005.

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Collaborations

• With Harvest Plus in a Food Consumption Survey in
  the Soroti district of Uganda aimed at
  identifying local biodiversity and their dietary
  use in conjunction with the orange fleshed sweet
  potato
• With FAO in a Food Composition Collaboration
  aimed at developing the capacity required to
  build the evidence base linking biodiversity with
  improved nutrition and health

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Activities by FAO

• At its October 2005 Session, the FAOs
  Intergovernmental Working Group on Plant Genetic
  Resources for Food Agriculture strongly
  encouraged countries to increase efforts at
  generating, compiling and disseminating cultivar
  specific nutrient composition data.
• FAOs editorial role in the publication of the
  Journal of Food Composition Analysis is
  creating awareness of biodiversity for food and
  nutrition in the global food and nutrition
  community, and encourages the generation of
  evidence linking biodiversity, nutrition and
  health. Increasing attention is now being devoted
  to documenting the nutritional value of local and
  indigenous food plants

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Invitation to other Organizations to contribute
to the Initiative

• WHO, IFAD, WFP, UNICEF, UNU and other
  inter-governmental organizations are encouraged
  to include biodiversity-related considerations in
  their programmes and strategies including but not
  limited to
• The Global Plan of Action to Achieve the
  Millennium Development Goals (prepared through
  the Secretary-Generals Millennium Project) and
  in particular its action plan on hunger
• The FAO World Food Summit Plan of Action
• The WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical
  Activity and Health and
• The International Assessment of Agricultural
  Science and Technology for Development
• Similarly governments and other international
  and national institutions, IUNS, ICSU and other
  research and academic associations, civil society
  organizations and movements, including the Slow
  Food Movement, local community and indigenous
  peoples organizations, and the private sector are
  encouraged to contribute to the initiative

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• Global Stakeholder Workshop on
  Biodiversity for Food and
  Nutrition
• Rome, Italy,
  February 16-17, 2006
• The International Plant Genetic Resources
  Institute (IPGRI), in collaboration with the
  Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
  Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture
  Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
  organized a Global Stakeholder Workshop to
  discuss the implementation of the CBDs
  Cross-cutting Initiative on Biodiversity for Food
  and Nutrition.
• These three institutions are partners in the
  initiative and this meeting was an important step
  in its implementation.

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Workshop Participants

• Professionals from national organizations engaged
  in policy and programmes addressing issues
  related to nutrition and the utilization of
  agricultural biodiversity
• Professionals in international organizations
  including the CGIAR contributing to food-based
  approaches to nutrition and food security
• Researchers contributing to food-based approaches
  to nutrition
• Representatives of national and international
  development agencies, Foundations, and NGOs
  working in the area of food security, nutrition,
  and health.

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Workshop Objectives

• General
• The general objective of the workshop was to
  develop elements of an impact-driven and global
  action plan to utilize agricultural biodiversity
  to improve the nutrition and health of the rural
  and urban poor.
• Specific
• To take stock of accomplishments in this area
  up-to-date as well as related ongoing programmes.
• To identify new partners and areas of
  collaboration.
• To identify a set of specific and coherent
  actions to be carried out by partners to
  implement the initiative, particularly in the
  areas of research, policy, and creating public
  awareness, as well as to mobilize required
  funding.

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Working Group Discussion Themes

• Research Capacity development required to
  establish the link between biodiversity,
  nutrition and health.
• Policy Actions required to support the
  Sustainable Use of Biodiversity to improve Food
  Security, Nutrition and Health of the poor.
• Creating Public Awareness of Biodiversity for
  Food, Nutrition and Health

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Summary Recommendations for Research Capacity
Development

• Design specific case studies to establish the
  links biodiversity/dietary diversity/nutrition/h
  ealth
• Determine local biodiversity through
  ethno-botanical surveys, market surveys, etc.
• Undertake Dietary surveys adapted to local
  situations to determine level of use of
  biodiversity and its impact on nutrition and
  health status
• Undertake analysis of local foods to determine
  their composition (nutrients, phytochemicals
  etc.)
• Build capacity to generate, analyze and
  disseminate badly needed information on
• - Composition of indigenous and traditional
  foods.
• - Food consumption surveys.
• - Ethno-botanical surveys that identify local
  biodiversity.
• - Economic analysis of effects on health of loss
  of biodiversity and dietary diversity.

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Summary Recommendations for Policy Actions

• Mainstream biodiversity for nutrition into
  different existing initiatives
• Promote the production and consumption of diverse
  local foods through market policies (e.g.
  removing disincentives in pricing, credit and
  subsidies) that ensure greater availability and
  low cost while also favoring returns to small
  producers
• Draw lessons from successful and unsuccessful
  policies
• Work to support policies that facilitate access
  to quality seed and genetic resources of crop
  varieties and local animal species and breeds
  that provide good nutrition to the poor in both
  urban and rural settings
• Mainstream biodiversity for nutrition into
  regional and National Food Security Policies,
  National Plans of Action for Nutrition, and
  promote food-based dietary guidelines that
  include local diversity
• Work to support school-based initiatives that
  promote biodiversity for food, nutrition and
  health

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Summary Recommendations for Awareness Creation

• Formulate effective campaigns to change behaviour
  and work with diverse agents of change to
  implement them.
• Recruit opinion shapers and celebrity role models
  to assist in campaigns.
• Work with multipliers such as civil society
  leaders and local suppliers of health information
  to promote diversity for well-being.
• Boost pride in local and indigenous foods and
  diets in support of cultural identity.

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THANK YOU