This issue of SCN News focuses on the interface between NGOs/civil society and the UN system concerning food security. SCN News 23 tries to take stock of what has not happened since the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996. The postponement of the WFS: five year later meeting gives us a good window of opportunity to focus on what are still unanswered questions and to engage in the much needed lobbying to, this time, obtain more meaningful commitments. SCN News 23 is an important contribution to this goal and looks at the issues from the perspectives of the UN agencies, the NGOs/civil society and respected professionals in the field. The feature articles provide facts and opinions, hopes and frustrations. A deliberate attempt is made to cover both opposing and complementary views, using the FAO-sponsored WFS: fyl preparatory process as a case study. Readers will undoubtedly identify with some views and disagree with others, this is the essence of the kind of dialogue needed. Also included in this issue is a message from the ACC/SCN Distinguished Nutrition Advocate Professor MS Swaminathan; he gives his perspectives on how to achieve greater food and nutrition security
The news in late summer that Dr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen was awarded the 2001 World Food Prize was most welcome indeed. This prize was conceived by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug as the equivalent of a Nobel prize for food.
This award recognizes Per’s lifetime of achievements in food policy research to help poor and malnourished people in developing countries. Per has been a towering strength and a clear voice for nutrition for many years, for the past ten years as Director General of IFPRI. Per’s vision, dynamic energy and signal efforts to put nutrition squarely onto the global policy agenda are well known. I know I am speaking for the entire SCN family when I convey to Dr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen heartfelt congratulations.
An important appointment has just been announced by UNICEF. Dr. Rainer Gross has been appointed Chief of the Nutrition Section at UNICEF Headquarters. Rainer is well known to the SCN, having represented Germany for many years in the SCN’s bilaterals group. Rainer has served for GTZ in field posts in Indonesia, Brazil and Peru. He has worked extensively on issues pertaining to micronutrient malnutrition, iron nutrition in particular, and food security. He brings great enthusiasm and expertise to UNICEF. We look forward to working with Rainer in his new position.
Preparations for the 29th Session of the ACC/SCN to be held in Berlin, March 11-15, 2002 are now well advanced. The centrepiece will be a symposium on Nutrition in the Context of Crisis and Conflict, with keynote addresses by usten Davis of Médecins Sans Frontières and Catherine Bertini of the World Food Programme. This will be followed by three invited papers on achievements in the field, on new developments in assessment and on nutrition as a human right during conflict. The Sixth Dr. Abraham Horwitz Lecture will be delivered this year by Ms. Soha Moussa, a graduate student from Lebanon studying at Tufts University in the US. Ms Moussa will present a paper entitled Keeping Schools Open which deals with school feeding in crisis and conflict, an important but much neglected area. ACC/SCN annual sessions are open to all. You are warmly invited to attend.
Many have asked me over the past months what impact ACC reform will have on the SCN’s important work. The SCN was created by ECOSOC Resolution in July 1996. Since its inception the SCN has reported to the ACC, which is made up of UN agency heads. It is of course logical that changes in the ACC may well have some effect on this reporting relationship. The SCN Secretariat is in regular contact with the ACC Secretariat in New York and news will be shared as it becomes available. In the meantime the ACC/SCN Steering Committee has discussed several possibilities for a new name for the SCN, to be implemented in the new year. Above all, the SCN will most certainly continue to function as a vibrant forum and network of UN agencies, bilaterals and NGOs in a creative tripartite structure aimed at common goals.
This message comes to you not from Rome but from Kinshasa. In August 2001 I took up new work and new challenges in Kinshasa where I serve as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As my two-year term as SCN Chair comes to a close I will hand over responsibilities to my successor in March, in Berlin. The Steering Committee is making good progress in selecting the next SCN Chair and we can expect to make an announcement shortly. I look forward to seeing you in Berlin.
Finally, Professor MS Swaminathan has most generously offered to host the 30th Session in Chennai, India. The dates are March 3-7, 2003 immediately after the IX Asian Congress of Nutrition. As usual, information on all SCN activities can be found on our website at http://acc.unsystem.org/scn/
Namanga Ngongi
