Experts deliberate on creating a roadmap for strengthening the ecosystem for nutrition towards meeting the SDG goals
CII-Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (FACE) is organising the National Nutrition Conclave till October 31, 2021. The third edition of CII’s National Nutrition Conclave brought together government, regulatory agencies, industry, academia, research institutes, associations and technical experts from across the globe to promote more coordinated and focused actions to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and create a roadmap for strengthening the ecosystem for nutrition towards meeting the SDG goals.
Speaking on the importance of partnerships towards strengthening public health, Dr Randeep Guleria, Chairman, CII Public Health Council and Director All India Institute of Medical Sciences, mentioned, “Going forward a robust Public Health framework needs to be created through coordination of all sectors including health, nutrition, sanitation and environment, Further, the delivery needs to be ensured leveraging public-private partnerships.”
Dr Anupa Siddu, Director, Lady Irwin College spoke about the issues of the dearth of awareness regarding health and nutrition at the community level. She mentioned, “There needs to be a shift from a volunteer model towards creating a cadre of skilled community level workers towards ensuring last-mile delivery of nutrition and public health.”
Prof K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India, reiterated this fact during his address on Actions towards strengthening public health systems. Dr Reddy mentioned, “India needs to move towards people partnered public healthcare, which can be achieved through accountability and monitoring of government schemes at the top, community awareness and last mile connectivity at grassroot level, and partnerships for public purpose.”
Vinita Bali, Chairperson, CII National Committee on Nutrition mentioned that convergence is a key towards accelerating nutrition delivery for improved public health outcomes and emphasised the importance of establishing accountability to enable effective implementation.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposes a global rethink to strengthen collaborative action towards the goal of ending malnutrition in all its forms and promoting healthy- sustainable diets to ensure food and nutrition security and better public health outcomes.