SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

Elliot M Berry MD, FRCP, Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel

Elliotb@ekmd.huji.ac.il

My comments relate to Sustainable Food Systems:

1. Who are the stakeholders in food security and nutrition? What are the interests and motivations of each stakeholder? How to attract and retain partners? What are their various levels of responsibility?

The number of stakeholders are indeed many and include:

Government (Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Environment, Education, Finance (economics), and Justice),

Local Authorities (Urban Planning), Agriculture (farmers), Environment, Health Professions, Industry, Catering sectors, Academia, Media, NGOs, Civil Society and the Consumer public. and more…

It is a major challenge how to get all these actors to participate and work together

2. How to define “multistakeholder partnership” for food security and nutrition?(FSN) What are the existing types of partnerships for financing and improving food security and nutrition? What are the tensions between the nature of these stakeholders and the functions of the partnerships?

I think it will be very difficult to get partnerships together unless the subject is broken up into distinct categories. For example 1) Sustainability/ (Environment, Economics and Socio-cultural aspects) and then the 4 dimensions of Food Security 2) Availability 3) Accessibility 4) Utilization and 5) Stability. One can use the existing framework developed by the UN 10 year program to bring representatives together. But there is always problems in translating expert opinion (“Top down”) into National policy and action.

1

Another complementary way should be” Bottom-up” in that countries and regions should perform their own needs assessment and prioritize them. Then teams can be built up to best answer their needs.

3. What are the goals, effectiveness, impact and performance of various forms of MSPs in reaching FSN objectives, in the context of the 2030 Agenda? What criteria, indicators, qualitative or quantitative approaches and methodologies could be used to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability, and value added for different types of MSPs?

As an exercise it is possible to show that all 17 SDGs may be involved in Sustainable Food Systems

Figure 1 : Sustainable Food Systems and the SDG goals

2

SUSTAINABLE FOOD (SECURE) SYSTEMS & SD GOALS

STABILITY

UTILIZATIONIndividual

ACCESSIBILITYHousehold

AVAILABILITYNational

ENVIRONMENTRegional

We will have to find suitable metrics (composite indices) through which it may be possible to monitor the dimensions of FSN.

3

To what extent do existing MSPs influence national, regional and international policies and programmes for FSN?

The United States Department of Agriculture offers grants to farmers, ranchers, educators, researchers, nonprofits, and students to promote innovations in sustainable agriculture.

Britain’s Department for Environmental, Food, and Rural Affairs has launched a research project to investigate ways to increase farm productivity while decreasing negative environmental effects.

France created a Ministry for Sustainable Development and added a Charter for the Environment to their constitution. Globally, there is a focus on reducing food waste, with France even making it illegal for supermarkets to throw away otherwise good food.

Brazil includes the right to food in its Constitution, and has become known for its success with reducing malnutrition through its national Zero Hunger program. Many countries have standards for food fortification to improve nutritional quality of food.

The UK, the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries all have laws restricting the advertisement of food to children. In France, food advertisements for children must include one of four health messages (such as the importance of physical activity, limiting sugar, and eating more fruits and vegetables), otherwise advertisers face a fine.

4. What are the potential controversies related to MSPs?

Everyone agrees that they are important (in theory). But what happens to their recommendations? It all depends on their mandate and who convened them. MSPs need to know a priori what is expected of them and what are the commitments of their conveners for ACTION!

5. What are/should be the respective roles and responsibilities of public, private stakeholders and civil society in such partnerships? What should be the respective contributions of each in the financing and improvement of FSN?

Public Private Partnerships are very important regarding Funding. Analogous to the general non-identifiable funds to combat HIV/AIDS from the drug industry, The food Industry should be approached to give open donations to promote FSN, I feel strongly that we have to involve the food industry in the discussions to work together to improve the quality of their products (salt, sugars and fats and labeling).

4

Another concern is the remuneration of the members of the MSPs for their time and travel expenses, when they have to rely on their own funds..

6. How to ensure to all stakeholders a “fair” representation in multistakeholder decision making process? How to ensure meaningful and effective participation of the people affected by the MSP, in the decision-making process, including in the setting and implementation of priorities?

Fair representation requires also commitment. One “cannot please all the people all the time”. The nature of the stakeholders will depend on the topic / priority under discussion. In the Figure 1 above it is possible to position the stakeholders listed in 1 supra.

Also, we need to ensure Geographic Representation and that the members are not weighted towards Developed countries.

7. How to improve MSPs in order to better implement the SDGs and improve FSN? What incentives mechanisms and legal and financial tools could be the most effective, efficient in this perspective? How the choice of the tools impact on the governance and on the effectiveness of MSPs?

I do not have knowledge on this point. I am sure we can learn from the experience of large organizations.

8. Do these questions correctly reflect the main issues to be covered?

I think so. The point to be made (again) is that success of MSPs will depend on their purpose and their ability to achieve results

9. Are you aware of references, examples, success stories, innovative practices and case studies that could be of interest for the preparation of this report? What are the existing MSPs related to FSN that you consider more relevant and why?

The UN 10 year Program Framework

Thank you

5

Elliot Berry

6