Geneva Health Forum 2024

Multisectoral collaboration as a recipe to address malnutrition and environmental challenges in secondary cities

Not scheduled

15m

Geneva

Oral presentation or scientific poster Health and the environment, time for solutions

Description

Introduction and Objectives Nutrition and environmental sustainability are multisectoral and connected to each other by nature. Siloes and entrenched ways of working do not fully grasp their impact. In Bangladesh, poor-quality diets and nutrition are a persistent concern highlighting the malfunctioning of food systems, especially in ‘secondary’ cities. Despite exploiting natural resources, current food systems are not able to provide an adequate diet to all people. The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project strives towards sustained and resilient food systems improving health, nutrition, and livelihoods for city populations in six secondary city ecosystems in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda.

Methodology Effective governance of urban food systems making use of multisectoral collaboration and coordination following the example of the Scaling-up Nutrition (SUN) Movement is a first step towards food system transformation and tackling malnutrition within the planetary boundaries.

Results & Discussion When the NICE project started in 2021, there were no multisectoral nutrition governance structures in any of the cities involved. Thus, in Rangpur city in Bangladesh, NICE started supporting and diversifying an active and well-functioning City-Level Multisectoral Nutrition Coordination Committee (CLMNCC) coordinating NGOs’ and private sector’s health and nutrition services with more broad food system perspectives such as from agriculture and education, from women and youth association and from various civil society organizations. A multisectoral city action plan for nutrition, implementation of what is regularly discussed during the CLMNCC meetings, has then been developed to monitor Rangpur’s progresses in food system transformation. Similarly, a standing committee on city nutrition and food systems at Rangpur City Corporation as per legal provision of section 50(2) of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009 has been established to promote the nutritional well-being of residents within the city jurisdiction through further advocating for food system transformation and providing an institutional framework for the CLMNCC.

Conclusion Copying the best practices of multisectoral collaboration as proposed by the SUN Movement to the city-level while including broad food system stakeholders from among government, civil society organisations and private sector in so called food system platforms marks a key milestone in urban food system transformation processes.