Serena Pepino, FAO - Facilitator of the discussion Dear Right to Food Forum members and contributors to the online discussion on Nutrition, education and awareness raising developments in the progressive realization of the right to adequate food. Thank you very much once again for your valuable inputs to this discussion. Your comments reflected experiences and insights from a wealth of contributors coming from different countries, some of which we already acknowledged (India and Nicaragua) and news ones such as the USA, Costa Rica, South Africa, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Bolivia and Pakistan. A number of elements raised in this discussion have been repeatedly brought up by many of you as crucial issues in terms of improving the realization of the right to adequate food in nutrition, education and awareness raising interventions. Participation, equality, capacity, information and experience sharing, knowledge and (human rights) learning, empowerment, commitment and responsibility were all mentioned by you as being important elements. This is of course not an exhaustive list but the examples and comments of this discussion show that the realization of the right to food is very much dependable on a wide and broad number of factors pertinent to the education and nutrition sectors, not to mention the realization of other fundamental human rights. What you also highlighted during the discussion is that commitment out there does exist and that in many countries progress to guarantee that everyone can enjoy the right to food is made daily. As rights holders or duty bearers, we all have an important role to play. The Right to Food Guidelines offer inspiration and concrete policy guidance on how to ensure, among other, that nutrition and education interventions make a difference in the realization of the right to food, wherever such interventions are designed, implemented and monitored. FAO shall not tire to promote this human right and use the Right to Food Guidelines as its main tool. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) will include a session on a ten year retrospective on progress made in implementing the Right to Food Guidelines at its 41st Session in October 2014. Your contributions to the two questions posed in this discussion helped informing this important global debate and for that, I thank you wholeheartedly! Thanks again, Serena Pepino, FAO Right to Food Team (ESA) Click here to see all comments received, background info and the questions. |