WHO Nutrition National Focal Points meet to assess progress and contributions to European health

Aims of the meeting

National focal points will meet in Tel Aviv, Israel from 10-12 March to discuss:

  • development of a new generation of nutrition, physical activity and obesity prevention policies in Europe. This will be the basis of the third Food and Nutrition Action Plan for the WHO European Region;
  • progress made by the 53 European Member States in improving nutrition, implementing policy actions and preventing obesity; and
  • capacity building on surveillance, monitoring and policy development in the fields of Nutrition and Obesity through lectures and working group sessions.

Assessing progress and contributions to European health policy

In addition, participants will discuss the contribution of the nutrition and obesity areas to the Action Plan for the Implementation of the European Strategy for the prevention and Control of the NCDs, as well as the role in the overarching Health 2020 strategy.

Salt, marketing of food to children, “trans” fatty acids and early nutrition, will also be on the agenda together with the integration of nutrition care within the health system, micronutrient deficiencies, breastfeeding and chronic malnutrition in the WHO European Region.

Parallel sessions will focus on progress in the WHO European Regional Action Networks.Sessions will also be devoted to discuss the contribution of the WHO European Region Network of Collaborating Centres for Nutrition and Obesity, while one session will focus on the ongoing collaboration with major international partners, namely the European Union.

Finally, various programmes in the area of nutrition at WHO Headquarters and nutrition-related agenda items of the World Health Assembly will be covered at the Meeting, namely the NCD agenda and the Implementation Plan for the Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding.

WHO/FAO Meeting in preparation for the International Conference on Nutrition: 21 Years Later

WHO/Europe and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia will hold a Regional Meeting in Tel Aviv, 13 March 2013, to prepare for the International Conference on Nutrition: Twenty-one Years Later (ICN+21), which will be held in Rome, November 2013. This high-level political event will be the first intergovernmental conference devoted solely to address the world’s nutrition problems in the 21st century.