WHO’s Ambition and Action in Nutrition 2016-2025 is anchored in the six global targets for improving maternal, infant and young child nutr
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ition and the global diet-related NCD targets.
In support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly SDG2 and SDG3, and in concert with the 2016-2025 UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, WHO’s Ambition and Action in Nutrition 2016-2025 aims for “A world free from all forms of malnutrition where all people achieve health and well-being”. It defines the unique value of WHO for advancing nutrition: the provision of leadership, guidance and monitoring and proposes a theory of change. Finally, following a set of guiding principles, it proposes priority actions for WHO, the delivery model and a clear allocation of roles across the Organization.
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The desired impact of the OH JPA is a world better able to prevent, predict, detect
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and
respond to health threats and improve the health of humans, animals, plants and the
environment while contributing to sustainable development. The OH JPA aims to work
towards this vision in the following way:
• Provide a framework for action and propose a set of activities the four organizations
can offer together to advance and sustainably scale up One Health.
• Provide upstream policy and legislative advice and technical assistance, to help
set national targets and priorities across the sectors for the development and
implementation of One Health legislation, initiatives and programmes.
• Take stock of existing cross-sectoral global and regional initiatives around One
Health, identify and advise on synergies and overlaps, and support coordination.
• Mobilize and make better use of resources across sectors, disciplines and
stakeholders.
• The OH JPA is guided by a theory of change and makes use of One Health principles
to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building and coordination
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The Quadripartite Organizations – the Food and Agr
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iculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – collaborate to drive the change and transformation required to mitigate the impact of current and future health challenges at the human–animal– plant–environment interface at global, regional and country level.
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These guidelines present evidence-based recommendations and best practice statements on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing
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animals, based on the WHO list of critically important antimicrobials for human medicine (WHO CIA List). These guidelines aim primarily to help preserve the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials, particularly those antimicrobials judged to be critically important to human medicine and also help preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials for veterinary medicine, in direct support of the WHO global action plan on antimicrobial resistance
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This report aims to support countries in the necessary transition toward healthier, more sustainable diets by integrating biodiversity in food-based interventions to support nutrition
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and health. It is intended to help guide decision-makers in the health, nutrition and other sectors, to:
Consider the important role of biodiversity in food systems for the development of integrated interventions to support healthy, diverse and sustainable diets;
To focus investments and country support for more comprehensive, coordinated and cross-cutting public health and nutrition projects and policies; and
To strengthen the resilience of food systems, health systems, and societies, each of which are each increasingly compromised by widespread ecological degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
Biodiversity at every level (genetic, species and ecosystem level) is a foundational pillar for food security, nutrition, and dietary quality. It is the basic source of variety in essential foods, nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and medicines, and underpins life-sustaining ecosystem services. It is a core environmental determinant of health, often a vital ingredient of healthy nutritional outcomes and livelihoods, gender equality, social equity, and other health determinants.
Biodiversity can play a more prominent role in planning for nutritional outcomes in various ways, e.g. by facilitating the production of nutritious fruits and plant products, sustaining livelihoods through more efficient production and increasing the diversity of products available in markets. This Guidance presents and expands on six core building blocks for mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health:
Cross-sectoral knowledge development and knowledge co-production;
Enabling environments;
Integration;
Conservation and the wider use of biodiversity;
Education and awareness-raising;
Monitoring and evaluation;
This WHO report builds on an unprecedented opportunity to mainstream biodiversity in order to support healthy and sustainable diets, and offers the necessary technical guidance to catalyze and support a transformation of the global food system and transition to healthier, more sustainable diets.
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This technical report presents the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in Sarajevo, the Federation
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of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, between June and August 2017, as part of the FEEDcities Project (Food Environment Description in cities – eastern Europe and central Asia). The aim of the report is to describe the city’s local street food and takeaway food environment, exploring the characteristics of food vending sites, the industrially produced and homemade foods they typically offer, and the nutritional composition of these foods. Finally, the report provides guidance on how to address its findings through policy action.
The study was conducted through a bilateral partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (WHO registration 2015/591370 and 2017/698514) and the Institute of Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study was funded through a voluntary contribution of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and through a contribution made by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)/Swiss Government to a joint WHO/SDC project, “Reducing Health Risk Factors in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Developing and Advancing Modern and Sustainable Public Health Strategies, Capacities and Services to Improve Population Health”, implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is releas
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ing the second edition of its Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance. The document aims to equip governments to respond to the health and well-being challenges, opportunities and needs of adolescents.
The guidance provides the latest available data on adolescent health and well-being. It also outlines an updated list of core indicators that data should be collected on. Globally, road injury was the top cause of death for adolescent males in 2019. Among female adolescents, the leading causes of death were diarrhoeal diseases among the younger group (10-14 years) and tuberculosis (TB) in the older group (15-19 years).
Over the last 20 years, mortality rates have declined among adolescents globally, with the largest decline in older (15–19 years) adolescent girls. For non-fatal diseases, the burden has not improved over the past two decades, with the main causes of ill health in this category being: mental health conditions (depressive and anxiety disorders, childhood behavioural disorders), iron deficiency anaemia, skin diseases and migraine.
Adolescent well-being depends on a range of factors, including healthy food, education, life skills and employability, connectedness, feeling valued by society, safe and supportive environments, resilience, and the freedom to make choices. To take an appropriately holistic approach, the guidance outlines how to take crosscutting action to support adolescent health and well-being, with mutually reinforcing interventions across sectors, such as health, education, social protection, and telecommunications. Targeted efforts are also required to engage adolescents, as they trust health systems less than adults do and are especially vulnerable to modern-day trends, like online bullying and gaming.
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The publication provides an overview and analysis of international instruments that set standards related to
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the use of antimicrobials across the human, animal and plant sectors, and their release into the environment. The purpose of the document is to identify existing instruments and standards in order to guide both their implementation and to inform discussions and direction for future international instruments related to antimicrobial use.
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This guideline provides updated, evidence-informed guidance on the percentage of total fat in the diet to reduce
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the risk of unhealthy weight gain.
This guideline is intended for a wide audience involved in the development, design and implementation of policies and programmes in nutrition and public health. This guideline includes a recommended level of total fat intake which can be used by policy-makers and programme managers to address various aspects of dietary fat in their populations through a range of policy actions and public health interventions.
The guidance in this guideline replaces previous WHO guidance on total fat intake, including that from the 1989 WHO Study Group on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases and the 2002 Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. The guidance in this guideline should be considered in the context of that from other WHO guidelines on healthy diets.
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At its 48th session of Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), the Committee noted the importanc
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e of water quality and safety in food production and processing. CCFH requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide guidance for those scenarios where the use of “clean water” (i.e. water that does not compromise the safety of the food in the context of its use) was indicated in Codex texts and on
where it is appropriate to use “clean water”. In particular, guidance was sought for the use of irrigation water and “clean” seawater and on the safe reuse of processing water.
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The report focuses on several key areas where health outcomes are falling short, and provides insight into ways in which countries can improve
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the situation for their children and adolescents. Areas in focus include mental health, overweight/obesity and adolescent risk-taking behaviour.
The report shows, for example, that:
- mental health remains a neglected subject – only one quarter of countries are collecting data on the number of children treated by a mental health professional;
- half of countries do not regulate the marketing of food to children, despite the fact that childhood obesity rates are high across the Region and physical activity rates are low;
- almost half of countries have no policy that affects the availability of unhealthy foods at school;
- 2 in 5 girls and 1 in 3 boys who are having sex do not protect themselves; and
one third of countries do not offer legal access to contraception without parental consent for those under 18 years of age.
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This guideline provides evidence-informed guidance on the use of non-sugar sweeteners to reduce the risk
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of unhealthy weight gain and diet-related noncommunicable diseases in adults and children. The guidance in this guideline is not based on toxicological assessments of the safety of individual non-sugar sweeteners and is therefore not intended to update or replace guidance on safe or maximal levels of intake established by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) or other authoritative bodies.
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Mission report: June 11-20, 2017
The Global guidance framework for the responsible use of the life sciences: mitigating biorisks
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and governing dual-use research (the framework) aims to provide values and principles, tools and mechanisms to support Member States and key stakeholders to mitigate and prevent biorisks and govern dual-use research.
The framework adopts the One health approach and focuses on the role that responsible life sciences research can play in preventing and mitigating risks caused by accidents, inadvertent or deliberate misuse with the intention to cause harm to humans, nonhuman animals, plants and agriculture, and the environment.
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During fresh fruit and vegetables (FFV) production, water is used for a variety of purposes. Even the water was conventionally treated
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and disinfected, it may still potentially contain human pathogens, albeit at low concentrations. A risk assessment, appropriate to the national or local production context, should be conducted to assess the potential risks associated with a specific water source or supply in order to devise the appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
Since the 48th session of Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) noted the importance of water safety and quality in food production and processing, FAO and WHO has undertaken the work on this subject. This report describes the output of the third in a series of meetings, which examined appropriate and fit-for-purpose microbiological criteria for water used with fresh fruit and vegetables. The advice herein will support decision making when applying the concept of fit-for-purpose water for use in the pre- and post-harvest production of fresh fruit and vegetables.
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The most significant finding of the case study for integrating antimicrobial resistance (AMR)into existing programs
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and mobilising resources for funding in Nigeria, is that most of the AMR activities within the Nigerian National Action Plan (NAP)canalready be incorporated within existing programs of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and their agencies or institutes. Certain programs and initiatives already have an AMR element incorporated or could,with little effort,include some additional AMR actions, however much is already being planned and has started with existing federal funding and existing staffing and other resources including development partner support and is being driven by significant political will from the ministries as well as implementation support from the Nigerian Centers for Disease Control as the focal point.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health concern with economic, social and political implications that are global in scope, a
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nd cross all environmental and ethnic boundaries. As a global threat, AMR risks the achievements of modern medicine, and has the potential to impact overall global development. It is important, therefore, to elevate AMR beyond health as part of a larger development agenda in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This report provides in-depth technical discussions in areas that have direct implications to the containment of AMR as a development agenda. The report is organized in five chapters which served as the technical background documents for the Biregional Technical Consultation on AMR in Asia, 14-15 April 2016. More information from the meeting is available in the WHO Meeting Report: Biregional Technical Consultation on Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia. The meeting was the first time senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture across Asia came together to tackle AMR
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Textes du Codex concernant la résistance aux antimicrobiens d’origine alimentaire
Textos del Codex sobre la resistencia a los antimicrobianos transmitida por los alimentos
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global public health conce
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rn and a food safety issue. When pathogens become resistant to antimicrobial agents they can pose a greater human health risk as a result of potential treatment failure, loss of treatment options and increased likelihood and severity of disease
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In recognition of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), its increasing threat to human, animal
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and plant health, and the need for a One Health approach to address this issue, the 39th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) agreed it was important for the food safety community to play its part and re-established the ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TFAMR) ). The objectives of the Task Force were
to revise the current Codex Code of Practice to Minimise and Contain Antimicrobial Resistance and to develop new guidance on surveillance programmes relevant to foodborne AMR.
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As the number of transboundary pest and animal and foodborne disease outbreaks rises, so does
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the number of people who are chronically hungry due to these and other factors. The correlation can be explained by the link between our health and that of the planet. We rely on land and sea for the production of safe and quality foods for our daily nourishment. Pests and disease epidemics negatively impact the quality, quantity and safety of our food sources, and cripple economic growth and efficiencies in production. Furthermore, the epidemic and endemic levels of the pathogens and disease vectors can be difficult to control. This is why FAO stresses and promotes the special efforts required for cost-effective preventive measures rather than the more expensive control, disinfestation, treatment and disposal measures. When preventive measures are late or difficult, preparedness and contingency plans must be in place to enable rapid response. Early warning systems, based on close monitoring, surveillance, and timely reporting are fundamental to warn and empower communities to safeguard their livelihoods and assets by enhancing disease and pest prevention measures and for government services to take immediate measures to protect communities and national economies.
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