Food and nutrition policy development

It has been estimated that over 700 million people still do not have enough food to eat on a daily basis and that more than 2 billion are subsisting on diets that lack the essential vitamins and minerals required for normal growth and development and to prevent premature death and disabilites such as blindness and mental retardation. At the same time, millions more suffer from chronic diseases caused by excessive and unbalanced diets. At the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), held in Rome in 1992 and sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations system, 159 nations endorsed a World Declaration that included recognition of the need for national plans of action for nutrition/national food and nutrition policies. Specific objectives that the delegates agreed should be achieved were a reinforcement of earlier goals agreed to at the World Summit for Children 1990. Political will is an essential prerequisite for successful national food and nutrition policies and plans. These must also be realistic, well-conceived and effective at all levels, especially where devolution is taking place. Over the last two decades there has been an evolution in the issues that policies address, as well as changes in the expectations of them. Virtually all countries have agreed to 'establish appropriate national mechanisms to prioritize, develop, implement and monitor policies and plans to improve nutrition within designated time-frames, based on national and local needs, and to provide appropriate funds for their functioning'. Worldwide, over 120 member states of the United Nations (UN) have finalized, strengthened or have under way, national plans of action for nutrition. The policy decisions being made in order to implement more of these plans over the remainder of the decade and beyond, are already providing invaluable experience and data. Evaluation should provide even more in the future.