This document provides information about an upcoming Regional Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Eating in Latin America and the Caribbean. The symposium aims to address malnutrition challenges and determine opportunities to tackle them over the next decades through discussions on policies and initiatives related to food availability, access, and governance. National and subregional consultations will inform the regional dialogue. Experiences showcasing innovations in sustainable food systems will be presented. The symposium seeks to identify principles for sustainable, equitable, and inclusive food systems that promote healthy eating and end all forms of malnutrition.

1. ©FAO / Fabiola Alcorta
5-6-7
September
2017
El Salvador
CONCEPT NOTE
REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ON SUSTAINABLE FOOD
SYSTEMS FOR HEALTHY
EATING
©FAO / Fabiola Alcorta

2. 1
In 2015, Latin America and the Caribbean
achieved the two Millennium Development
Goals related to poverty and hunger: by
reducing the proportion of people living in
extreme poverty by 66%, and the proportion
of the total undernourished population by
almost 63%. The region has also achieved the
most ambitious goal established by the World
Food Summit (WFS), to reduce by half the
total number of hungry persons in accordance
with data recorded at the start of the 1990s.
The region has also demonstrated significant
progress on nutrition, such as the reduction of
stunting prevalence by 12.9 percentage points
over the last 25 years.
However, malnutrition is an issue that
affects society as a whole, although different
population groups are affected in different
ways. Globally, there are 800 million people
undernourished, 161 million children under
the age of five are stunted, two billion
people who suffer from micronutrient
deficiencies, 1 900 million people who are
overweight and 600 million who suffer from
obesity. Overweight and obesity cause
about 3.4 million deaths each year; this
form of malnutrition is associated with the
development of non-communicable chronic
diseases such as diabetes, hypertension,
cardiovascular diseases
and cancer.
The region of Latin America and the
Caribbean is no different: there are 34 million
undernourished people, 6.1 million children
under age five are stunted, and almost four
million are affected by overweight and 38.5%
with anemia. Anemia affects 17% of the population
of women of childbearing age (between 15 and 49
years old). Over 50% of the adult (>18 years old)
population are overweight and 23% are obese. The
non-communicable chronic diseases are among
the leading causes of death in almost every country
of the region. The availability of sugar is greater
than that observed in developed regions and the
availability of fats per capita is greater than the
recommended range for a healthy diet, whereas
the availability of fish per person is the lowest of
all regions of the world, and each year 127 million
tons of food are lost or wasted.
Confronted with these facts, several dialogue
and consultation mechanisms have agreed that
it is required a fundamental change in order to
strengthen, preserve or recover food systems
that guarantee sustainability and the capacity to
provide nutritious meals affordable to everyone,
incorporating an integrated perspective ranging
from the conservation of ecosystems through
the more efficient and sustainable use of land
and natural resources, improving the techniques
used for the production, storage, transformation,
processing marketing and commercialization of
food, up to the management of food losses and
waste and the empowerment of responsible
consumers as a prime force in the food system.
This was the role of the Second International
Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), held in November
2014, which issued the Rome Declaration on
Nutrition and its accompanying Framework for
Action in which member countries committed to
“enhance sustainable food systems by developing
coherent public policies from production to
consumption across relevant sectors to provide year-
round access to food that meets people’s nutritional
needs and promotes safe and varied healthy diets.”
In January 2015, the Community of Latin American
and Caribbean States (known by its Spanish
acronym as CELAC) approved and adopted the Plan
for Food Security, Nutrition and the Eradication of
Hunger by 2025. The Plan is based on four main
pillars to strengthen the dimensions of food security
and nutrition through the generation of policies,
programmes, strategies and projects using a
multisectoral approach at the national, subregional
and regional levels.
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3. 3
In September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted, based on the
premise that it was possible to achieve an integral form of development that harmonize economic,
social and environmental sustainability and “that leaves no-one behind.” The 2030 Agenda includes
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in which nutrition holds a prominent position,
reiterating and reinforcing the commitments of ICN2. Subsequently, in April 2016, the United
Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Decade for Action on Nutrition (2016-2026), thus
creating the political environment favorable for the transforming of commitment into action.
The Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Symposium on sustainable food
systems for healthy eating offers the opportunity to consider the challenges and
opportunities in shaping sustainable food systems that assure everyone the human right
to adequate and healthy food. The Symposium will also convene a multisectoral forum to
share practical solutions, successful experiences and lessons learned about the process
of recreating sustainable, equitable and inclusive systems in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
The Symposium will focus on efforts to deal with the multiplicity of challenges that
malnutrition represents in all its forms, and determine the opportunities to tackle
them over the next few decades, via three central themes that provide a regional
perspective on sustainable, equitable and inclusive food systems which will serve
as a viable platform for promoting a healthy, balanced and diversified eating:
Central themes
The Symposium will focus on efforts to deal with the multiplicity of challenges
that malnutrition represents in all its forms, and determine the opportunities
to tackle them over the next few decades, via three central themes that
provide a regional perspective on sustainable, equitable and inclusive food
systems which will serve as a viable platform for promoting a healthy,
balanced and diversified eating:
1. Policies and initiatives1
that guarantee the availability of diversified and
healthy foods: measures to promote the production, transformation,
storage, supply, distribution, marketing and commercialization of a
diversified and healthy foods in a sustainable and efficient manner;
2. Policies and initiatives associated with the access to and consumption
of a diversified and healthy foods: measures to guarantee
affordability and promote the sustainable consumption of a
diversified and healthy foods.
3. Policies and initiatives that improve intersectoral governance for
sustainable, equitable and inclusive food systems.
1
For example, public policies, programmes, administrative and institutional
arrangements, governance and regulatory mechanisms, social and innovative
technologies.
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4. 3
2
Although there are local, national and subregional food systems, their interdependence is acknowledged in the conformation of a
food system.
Cross-cutting themes
Under the three central themes, initiatives will receive
1. The centrality of women in the promotion of sustainable food systems and healthy eating;
2. The contribution of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and traditional diets for healthy eating;
3. The need to combat the effects of climate change and other environmental factors affecting food and
nutritional security;
4. Human rights, life cycle and equal attention to groups in vulnerable situation.
Objective
The objective is to promote strategies to achieve sustainable, equitable and inclusive food systems2
that
guarantee the right to an adequate food and eradicate all forms of malnutrition and, therefore, help to
achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Expected outcomes
• Identified the core elements and principles that could define a sustainable, equitable and inclusive food
system for healthy eating and bring all forms of malnutrition to an end.
• Provided recommendations to Governments and other actors of food systems that would enable the
design and implementation of strategies, policies and programmes to transform food systems into
becoming more sustainable, more equitable, more inclusive and sensitive to nutritional needs.
Methodology and activities
• Presentations and working group dialogues divided into thematic sessions.
• Plenary sessions in which the ideas considered at the thematic sessions are presented.
Profile of the participants
• Governments (agriculture, health, social development, education, environment, research institutes,
planning, economics and finance, consumer protection bodies), parliamentarians, academics, the
private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society associations or organizations (cooperatives,
consumer organizations), international agencies and organizations, and so on.
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5. 4
©FAO/2017
Organization of the Symposium
Steering Committee of the Symposium
PAHO/WHO, FAO.
Functions of the Steering Committee
Act as secretariat of the Symposium through the following main activities:
• Prepare the Concept Note, agenda and organization of the Symposium in
coordination with the host country.
• Lead the organization of the national consultations in coordination with the
relevant Government authorities.
• Organize the “Call for Experiences.”
Technical Advisory Committee
The Technical Advisory Committee of the Regional Symposium on sustainable
food systems for healthy eating is a group of persons from the various
countries of the region each possessing a high degree of technical and applied
knowledge, as well as the relevant trajectory on the matters covered in the
Symposium, such as sustainable rural development and food systems, food
and nutritional security. In the exercise of its functions, the committee will
coordinate permanently with the Steering Committee.
Objective
Strengthen in both conceptual and technical terms the process of design
and implementation of the Symposium through the appropriate technical
knowledge and experience.
Members
• Elisabetta Recine, Director of the Food and Nutritional Security Observatory
of the University of Brasilia.
• Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Director of the Office of Public Health, School of
Public Health, Yale University.

6. 5
• Establish conceptual reference frameworks for
the development of the National Consultations
and submit observations on its outcomes.
• Participate on and moderate sessions or panels
of the Symposium.
• Contribute towards the design and review of
the report of the Symposium and help with the
dissemination and follow-up of its results.
• Any other function that the Committee might
deem necessary.
©FAO/2017
• Dinorah López Velázquez, Food Rights Activist, FIAN Mexico.
• Rocío Miranda, President of the Unit of Indigenous and Rural
Farmers Force of Mexico.
• Daisy Márquez, Executive Director of the Food and Nutritional
Security Council of El Salvador.
• Carolina González, Representative of the International Centre for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia.
• Danilo Pérez, Director of the Consumer Defense Centre, El
Salvador.
Functions
• Contribute to the design of a general conceptual framework
for the Symposium.
• Establish technical criteria for the “Call for Experiences”.
• Assist the process of submission of experiences and select
those to be presented at the Symposium.

7. 7
Call for experiences
Objective: to make available to the participants of the Symposium any stimulating experiences about
innovations in the various aspects that comprise a food system and that might have contributed to its
sustainability.
Types of experience: highest consideration will be placed on innovative experiences that assume
a rethinking of the current food system in such a way as to transform it towards its sustainability
in social, economic and environmental terms. Eligible experiences will relate to the production,
transformation, storage, transportation, marketing, commercialization and consumption of food,
and those that broach in a generalized manner the issues of food and nutritional security or the
right to food. High consideration will be given to experiences that incorporate perspectives of
gender, indigenous peoples, and African descent, and experiences coherent with regional and global
processes, such as the Framework for Action of the Second International Conference on Nutrition, the
CELAC SAN Plan, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Entities: public organizations, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and food producer,
processing, marketing or consumer organizations.
Presentation format: experiences must be presented in the form of a technical profile whose
format and evaluation criteria (annex 1) will be made available on the website of the organizing
institutions: http://plataformacelac.org/experiencias
The application may be accompanied by additional visual or audiovisual material if deemed pertinent.
Call for submissions: the call for submissions will be published on the official web page of the
Symposium and will be open from the 21th June to 21th July 2017.
Selection: the Technical Committee, supported by the Steering Committee, will consider the
experiences submitted and select those to be presented during the Symposium (either in the
thematic sessions or through posters), based on the selection criteria published on the web page of
the Symposium.
The experiences chosen to be presented during the Symposium may also form part of a virtual
platform on best practices or a joint publication on food systems by FAO and PAHO to provide
government officers, international organizations or civil society organizations with information and
inspiration to promote food system.
REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SUSTAINABLE
FOOD SYSTEMS FOR HEALTHY EATING
©FAO/2017
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8. 7
National and/or subregional consultations
Objective: to generate a process of national exchange that would
enable reflection, positioning and agreements to be established prior to
the Regional Symposium, to enrich and add depth to the regional debate.
Consultation sites: the national consultations will take place in countries
where important windows of opportunity have been identified in relation
to the study, analysis and transformation of food systems to make them
sustainable and nutrition-sensitive.
Methodology: the national Offices of PAHO and FAO, in conjunction with
the representative of the corresponding national institution, will prepare the
national consultations. The initial discussion document will be an executive
summary based on the report on food systems and nutrition prepared by
the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security and
the 2016 Panorama of Food and Nutritional Security in Latin America and the
Caribbean prepared by FAO and PAHO (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6747s.pdf).
Government representatives (agriculture, health, social development,
education, environment, research institutes, planning, economy and
finance, consumer protection institutes), parliamentarians, academics, the
private sector, non-governmental organizations, associations or civil society
organizations (cooperatives, consumer organizations), international agencies
and organs, will be invited to participate in the consultations.
Each consultation will consist of three sessions. The objectives of the
Symposium will be presented in the first session, together with the structure of
the consultation process and the content of the two baseline documents.
In the second session, the participants will be divided randomly into smaller
discussion groups in such a way as to ensure diversity of the participants
in terms of their origin and the interests they represent. Each group will be
tasked with assigning a Facilitator and a Rapporteur from amongst their
members. The Facilitator will be responsible for coordinating the discussions
using as a guide the same questions raised for the thematic sessions of the
Symposium. The Rapporteur will summarize in 150 words the considerations
of the group on each of the sub-themes.
In the third session, the Rapporteur of each group will present the results
of their group discussions to the rest of the participants, after which the
participants will be invited to discuss the outcomes of the dialogue groups.
The consultant will be responsible for presenting the final report of the
consultation, which must incorporate integrally the texts produced by each
working group, and a synthesis of the same report in which there will be
identified three key messages of the consultation for the Symposium.
REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SUSTAINABLE
FOOD SYSTEMS FOR HEALTHY EATING
©FAO/2017

9. 9
Annex 1 – Selection criteria
Best practices will be evaluated by the Technical Advisory Committee
on the basis of the following criteria:
1. Respect for the Human Right to Adequate Food.
2. The contribution made to a food system that is sustainable,
equitable and inclusive (positive impact on the various
elements of a food system).
3. A systemic, intersectoral and participative approach to food
and nutritional security.
4. Contribution towards the implementation of the Rome
Declaration on Nutrition and its Framework for Action and the
Sustainable Development Goals.
5. The possibility of replication at the national, regional and
global levels.
6. An approach that contributes to combating the effects
of climate change and other environmental factors
affecting food and nutritional security.
7. An approach that promotes gender equity and the
centrality of women in the promotion of sustainable
food systems and healthy eating.
8. An approach that promotes the contribution of
indigenous peoples, people of African descent and
traditional diets for healthy eating.
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10. ©FAO,2017
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