United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

 

Report of the Sub-Committee on Nutrition at its Twenty-Fifth Session

II.  Work in Progress:  Summary of Discussion and Conclusions

F.  20/20 Guidelines for Basic Services

72.  The Chair introduced the 20/20 initiative as a re-prioritization within national budgets and aid budgets (20% of each), with the aim of mobilizing adequate financial resources to support basic social services.  The 20/20 initiative is an interagency collaboration with practical guidelines focusing on the goals of major global conferences.  Guidelines are already prepared on primary health care, basic education and reproductive health to send to country field offices and resident coordinators.

73.  Draft nutrition guidelines prepared by the Technical Secretary were then discussed.  Substantive comments were received and the following process proposed:

  • revised draft guidelines would be distributed to SCN participants for comment;
  • guidelines would be finalized by the Technical Secretary and submitted to the UN Development Group for formal consideration, by mid June;
  • final version presented at the 20/20 Conference in October 1998, Hanoi.

74.  WANHR offered to rewrite the section on human rights  to reflect current thinking in this area. The Sphere project should be included in the reference list. The suggestion to include evaluation in the guidelines prompted discussion on the possibility of forming a technical working group on this topic.

75.  It was agreed that the presence of nutrition within the 20/20 initiative is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of nutritional issues.  More advocacy for nutrition as a part of the 20/20 initiative should be encouraged.  Specifically, it was requested that the booklet being prepared by UNICEF on implementing the 20/20 initiative emphasize nutrition.