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In this dialogue, we mainly discussed challenges and opportunities related to Action Track2: Shift to sustainable consumption patterns, especially focusing on the role of Food and Nutrition Education

The main remarks of the participants are below.・It is very important for every country to consider how to make domestic food production more sustainable for contributing the achievement of SDGs.・It is important not only for farmers to promote organic farming and other eco-friendly measures, but also for consumers to understand the importance of these farmers’ efforts.・Japan should demonstrate its domestic efforts to promote the understanding of consumers about ”Ethical Consumption”　based on the Basic Act on Shokuiku (Food and Nutrition Education).・In Japan there... Read more is not much progress on the understanding of nutritionists and researchers about importance of sustainable consumption considering not only health but also environmental impact. The related data including the EAT Lancet report should be provided to nutritionists and researchers to promote their understanding of this issue.・The situation that per capita GHG emissions from food current consumption pattern of Japan is relatively very low(the second lowest of G20 countries) should be widely recognized by the public and the factors of the low emission including cultural background and the way of keeping the current diet pattern should be disseminated. Read less

In this dialogue, we discussed challenges and opportunities related to all Action Tracks.

The main remarks of the participants are as follows. ・It should be more emphasized that Japanese diet is good not only for health but also for environment. ・To promote Shokuiku(food and nutrition education), more data and evidences showing that Japanese cuisine is excellent in environmental aspect should be collected.

The major focus of the dialogue is to improve food and nutrition security through food system approach. In the discussion of the dialogue, Action Track-1 i.e. ‘Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all’ was considered initially. However, connections with the other Action Tracks were also considered for the improvement of food and nutrition security situation in Bangladesh. In the group discussion session of the dialogue, the following six thematic areas (discussion topics) were considered: i) Availability of diversified, safe and nutritious Food; ii) Transformation, delivery, acces... Read mores and role of private sector; iii) Vulnerability and inclusion (youth, gender, hard to reach areas, disability, social safety net); iv) Consumer behaviour; v) Nutrition and food safety (rules, regulations, compliance); vi) Governance and coordination.For ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, it is important to include all vulnerable population in the social protection programme. Government of Bangladesh has given emphasis to support people affected by the flood, drought, natural disaster, other adverse climatic events. In addition, it is also important to support people residing in the marginalized and geographically hard-to-reach areas, and families which are economically and socially vulnerable to food and nutrition security. Communities afflicted by food insecurity for a long period of time are very prone to suffer from depletion of their productive assets and health, disruption of education of children and youth, and diminished future productive capacity and income. A well-targeted nutrition sensitive social safety net program is needed to prevent food and nutrition insecurity along with re-building their productive assets. A well-designed target program can benefit the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups especially children, adolescents, lactating mothers, aged, disabled, minorities, those living in remote marginalized areas, urban slums, and displaced migrants. Besides, special training programs and agricultural sector rehabilitation and mitigation measures could benefit these vulnerable and excluded people. Read less

Bangladesh has achieved the status of self-sufficiency in terms of food production. It is the high time that Bangladesh should go for food quality rather than quantity and move towards healthier nutritious food production and consumption. For this reason, it is important to focus on food system approach to ensure food and nutrition security and to achieve all 17 SDGs. Like most of the countries in the world, existing food system of Bangladesh is based on quantity, so it is essential to convert the quantity based food system to quality based food system. Food supply chain including production t... Read moreo consumption and all steps need to be considered and other components of food systems like food environment (including food availability, food accessibility, food quality), consumer behaviour and diet should be prioritized for better food system.The role of multisectoral and multi-stakeholders in national development is significant to ensure nutrition sensitive food system. Having effective coordination with private sectors including all players of food supply chain and involving civil society, scientists and academia are likely to bring more innovations to the existing system and add value to the important task of achieving food and nutrition security. Thus, creating an enabling platform for multi-stakeholder engagement is required to strengthen national food system and ensure safe and nutrition food. Read less

• Availability of diversified, safe and nutritious Food: Outcomes- Diversified, safe and nutritious food needs to be made available for vulnerable people through the proper nutrition sensitive food system. It is essential for nutrition and food safety to be incorporated in the interventions related to agricultural production including fisheries and livestock.- It is essential to establish adequate number of cold storage/warehouses for proper storage of perishable food items. It is also important to ensure diversified use of agricultural commodities which can be enabled by establishi... Read moreng location specific agro-processing industries. e.g., mango juice plant in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj and pineapple processing plant in Modhupur and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).- It is vital to improve the transportation and logistical systems for agricultural product to minimise spoilage during transportation.- Expansion of the production of captured fish need to be ensured to get nutritious fish as the culture fish production is increasing rapidly which does not contain adequate micronutrient while captured fish are tastier and more natural.- Establishment of sanctuary for captured fish particularly in haor, baor areas is essential. During dry season some portion of haor, baor can be dug out for preserving and protecting mother fishes, which could increase production of captured fish.- Excess vegetables produced in haor (wetlands) and char (islands) areas can be processed and dried by using solar dryer which can be made available for the consumption of haor and char dwellers. Location specific awareness creation activities must be undertaken in these areas on consumption of dried vegetables.• Transformation, delivery, access and role of private sector- It is important to establish an enable environment so that the farmers can sell their product directly to the market. Steps should be taken to allow farmers to get fairs price for their produces in the market.- Awareness building campaign for consumer should be undertaken to choose nutritious and safe food options.- In order to check food adulteration, monitoring process should be more vigilant and capacity of agencies charged with monitoring and vigilance needs to be strengthened further.- Modern food storage and processing institutions should be established, for which co-operation and a responsible attitude in enhancing food systems from private sector actors and business associations are central.• Vulnerability and inclusion (youth, gender, hard to reach areas, disability, social safety net)- Urgent action is required for vocational training and support programs for small-scale farmers to produce high-value nutritious crops, fruits, and vegetables with a special focus on the haor, baor, hills, and hard-to-reach areas. For these actions, the Ministry of Agriculture should take necessary actions and the progress could be measured by the production volume of high-value crops in those specific areas. The possible challenges include farmers’ adoption of high-value crops and marketing facilities.- A well-targeted, nutrition-sensitive, and equitable social safety net program especially for the vulnerable groups including the women and adolescents need to be run. Reducing the mistargeting of social safety net programs and increasing the food-based support program were the proposed suggestions in the participants’ discussion. An evaluation of the existing social safety nets programmes needs to be conducted. Government of Bangladesh has formulated the National Social Security Read less

From the dialogue, it was identified that the post-harvest loss in horticultural product is one of the major challenges in the food system of Bangladesh. Agro-processing have a lot of potential in the country. However, small and medium industries cannot compete with large players with a lot of marketing budget. Besides, market instability and lack of efficient market management also pose challenges for food supply chain. Moreover, inclusion and investment of the private sector is also another key challenge to address in coming years. This has also been highlighted in the Food and Nutrition Sec... Read moreurity Policy 2020.The vulnerabilities related to adverse climatic shocks and economic shocks were discussed in the group discussion. In addition to the supporting program, vocational training focusing on high-value crop production should be organized for the farmers in disadvantaged areas. Social safety net programs targeting children, adolescents, and lactating mothers should be strengthened both in the rural, peri-urban, and urban areas.Some areas of divergence discussed in the dialogue includes the following: low reduction rate of stunting, lack of awareness on proper nutrition and inadequacy of funding in nutrition specific interventions. It is also important to strengthen implementation of the acts specially Food Safety Act/BMS Act, and give emphasis on the research on pure nutrition. It is also important to provide more incentives for the food producers/suppliers. The linkages with the nutrition outcomes with the food system have to be developed as a plan on action in all the relevant Ministries, since food system is inherently complex and more than 22 Ministries implement nutrition sensitive interventions. Read less

Please find outcome of the discussions in the attachments: 1. Compilation of relevant existing research and documentation 2. A research report on indigenous peoples' food systems 3. Points raised at the dialogue working groups

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The research program FOOD of the Academy of Sciences is commissioned by the government. It is expected to give policy advise for further implementation of the government program, where sustainability and the overall set of SDGs is central. Therefore, the main focus for the program was to identify urgent research needs for policy advice.As for the FSS dialogue, this served for the phase 1 of the national dialogue; collecting information and data, perception of the state of play and identifying the participants for the dialogue. The discussions, together with the search for existing documen... Read moretation, helped to get an overall image of the situation. A compilation of existing research and data is attached to this feedback. Also, a report on the discussions is attached.Research challenges: What are the policy instruments to advance SDG targets? How to make change attractive for the actors in the food branch? How to bring along those who are hit by the change? What is the suitable pace of change, taking into account the urgency and the consequences for those who will loose. How to make consumers behave according to recommendations? How to combine national interests and global climate objectives?The complexity and interlinkages between "tracks" makes it necessary to discuss without silo thinking, even under a specific Action Track. Read less

For the phase 1 of the dialogue, this served well: a bunch of links to existing research and documentation was collected. There is a need to enlarge the spectrum of participation. Agreements, commitments, policy choice is to be dealt with in the next phases of the dialogue. For the FOOD research program it was useful to get advise for further research.

Whilst no specific commitments were made in the course of this dialogue, by moving forwards with the event, there has been specific request to join in the dialogue process, including from branches of government, UN agencies, civil society representatives and other individuals. The event has help spark a new list of participants and topics of interest for ongoing dialogue. The participants .recognised that it will be useful to increase understanding and awareness of the food systems and how we relate to it. The discussion heightened issues for some parties who felt that food systems are not... Read more relevant to their interests and revealed the depth of the divisions between some sectors and interests. The challenge for engaging the many parts of the food system and highlighting interconnectedness was clear. For some areas, involvement with systems discussion is not appealing because they prefer to remain within limited mandates and specialised areas of interest. This is an ongoing challenge and reflects a history of sectoral thinking in education, governance and management. Read less

What can we do to reach our vision for sustainable food systems for Cambodia 2030?Keep a focus on healthy diets and healthy diet should be a part of the national curriculum. Providing information to consumers on how to make sustainable and healthy choices on the food they buy and consume is important.The political will to change is a prerequisite. We must also ensure that all parties, including the private sector work in unity.Increased investments in education and research and innovation are critical for shaping the future of the food system.A food systems approach is importa... Read morent for achieving the vision. When we talk about sustainable food systems it is an opportunity to talk about everything that has to do with the food we want to eat, from supply chain, to consumer environment, to how food is prepared etc. Cross-cutting issues are very important. Waste is another very important issue. Consider economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of the food system.Cambodia was quite resilient during COVID-19 in terms of food supply, and we can learn lessons from that regarding sustainable consumption patterns. More work required to build resilience for dealing with climate change and disaster managementMore opportunities required to disseminate information to people at different levels, like the market side. We have National Nutrition Day every year, but that targets specific people. We can make that event more open to the public and make it more enjoyable and reach down to sub-national level.Quality Assurance and Quality Control mechanisms required for food, through each point of the food system (including the production and use of ingredients, growing, processing, packaging, production, selling and consumption).One element missing is the responsibility in terms of the market to provide information, for increased market monitoring and information sharing. Market regulations should be enforced..Social assistance is very interesting. School feeding schemes and cash transfers for the poor during COVID-19 improve food access. We could discuss further the social protection/social assistance on offer in Cambodia and how this affects the food system. This could be critical for resilience? While there was no food shortage during the pandemic, studies show that people are more in debt and this can affect nutrition. It is important to take a life cycle approach (include elderly, young children, disability, and youth etc.) and design programmes for those special groups. The private sector and the SMEs are very important partners for moving towards sustainable food systems, especially in the development of food processing and packaging.The sub-national platforms should be scaled up to provide a platform for different sectors to come together regarding nutrition. Food systems is a relatively new idea for everyone, and it is important to bring different departments into action. While the dialogue is driven at the national level, including stakeholders from all departments is key and the next step is to bring this to the sub-national level. All levels to be involved in information dissemination to reach to the community. Cross-sectoral coordination is vital for creating access to nutritious food and to alleviate poverty. The road map should include cross-sectoral working systems at the local level? It is difficult for people’s voice to be heard, so this is important to create equal access. Especially when it comes to infrastructure, such as water systems, necessary for allowing good nutrition. Read less

A vision for sustainable food systems for Cambodia 2030Draft Vision By 2030, Cambodian food systems will ensure access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all Cambodians, enabling sustainable production and consumption patterns, a balance between long term productivity and the conservation of natural resources, promoting equitable livelihoods and inclusiveness and resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.Comments: The demand for healthy food from the consumer’s perspective should be pointed out more. Rather than just looking into supply, we should also look into d... Read moreemands for healthy diets and how that could be included. The concept of food sovereignty should be included in the vision. This means that people can access and consume healthy and culturally appropriate food that is produced without harm to the environment. the vision should be that people can consume a healthy diet and have choice.The word ‘access’ is vague – does it refer to affordability, availability to materials if one wants a home garden, etc. It should be elaborated what ‘access’ means as it could mean different things to different people. For access, information is also very important. People can have the food but without access to information there is still a problem. When we think about access to food, we must include consideration of the poor, minorities and migrants.We want to see more of a focus on healthy diets and the consumer information side of things. People often don’t have enough education/information on the topic and this should be expressed somewhere. Sharing knowledge of agriculture is important, including food safety.Conservation of natural resources (perspective from working in Preah Vihear) could be conflicting with livelihoods, as many people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.There should be a balance of agro-industrial production for export and local production for local demand Read less

Conservation of natural resources (perspective from working in Preah Vihear) could be conflicting with livelihoods, as many people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.There should be a balance of agro-industrial production for export and local production for local demand

This event was primarily to practice our team in all the process of the dialogue and to discover our limitations and capabilities. This was our first experience in conducting a zoom meeting with separate breakout rooms and plenary sessions. The dialogue itself sought participants feedback on a draft vision for sustainable food systems in Cambodia in 2030. The participants were given complete freedom to comment on what sort of elements should be in the vision, using the draft simply as a reference point if they needed ideas to react to. The second and more detailed part of the dialogue was t... Read moreo suggest ways that we can move forward towards that vision. These ideas will continue to be developed over the whole course of the national dialogue in readiness for the summit.The draft vision presented was: By 2030, Cambodian food systems will ensure access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all Cambodians, enabling sustainable production and consumption patterns, a balance between long term productivity and the conservation of natural resources, promoting equitable livelihoods and inclusiveness and resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.Several amendments to the vision or points of clarification were suggested. These included a long standing difficulty in understanding the meaning of access; whether affordability is included in the concept of access to food and whether information about food is considered under access. Other points raised were for more emphasis to be placed on healthy diets and consumer information, that the trade-offs implicit in increasing productivity and conserving resources and between food crops and agro-industry should be more explicit and that we need more detail on how the poor and vulnerable are to be included. Read less