The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS), Director of Primary Health care Dr Rex Maukera joined the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Hon Franklyn Derek Wasi and its delegation to the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Small Islands Developing States Solutions (SIDS) Forum from the 5th to 8th November 2021 in Suva, Fiji.
The Prime Minister of Fiji, His Excellency Sitiveni Rabuka, is also one of many political world leaders participating at the event, along with ministers and other high-level dignitaries from the region and beyond. FAO Director-General Dr. QU Dongyu also attended in person. Hundreds of people attended physically and virtually, including public policymakers and practitioners, international donors, community leaders, Agri-entrepreneurs, investors, and private sector stakeholders.
The FAO SIDS 2024 Forum theme is Transforming Agrifood Systems for our Blue Pacific Continent through Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life. The Forum seeks to encourage innovative intra- and interregional knowledge exchange to incubate, promote, scale up, and replicate ideas to accelerate the achievement of agriculture, food, nutrition, environment, and health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Dr. Rex Maukera stated that on day 3 of the forum, the discussion focused on the area of Better Nutrition for SIDs country. Issues around rising NCD in the SIDS countries are alarming, undernutrition and overnutrition are still prevalent in SIDS with rising climate risk and disaster.
“The discussion highlighted finding alternative solutions in addressing Health issues compounded with Climate hazards in the SIDS. The Forum also highlighted the importance of promoting our traditional practices and crops to improve Better Nutrition for its country’s citizens. With that, different small island states also presented their best practices that contribute to better Nutrition for the country”, said Dr Maukera.
He outlined that Tonga; their country has taken the multi-sector approach in supporting Better Nutrition for their country through the development of Food-based Dietary Guidelines.
Fiji presented its Success stories of Food Safety as a Solution for NCD. The Food Safety that focuses on Food Safety Alimentarius. Hence Fiji discussed their Food Safety Act 2003, Food Safety Regulations 2009 the role of Leaders and governance arrangement and Marketing control. Other Countries also presented their innovative approaches to address Better Nutrition through different innovative solutions like Nutrition Education to transform lives and livelihoods, School Gardens for better nutrition participation in schools and communities, Farm to Fork (F2F) initiative – “Connecting farmers to chefs”
Recommendation 9 from the forum stated, “We encourage all stakeholders to work on the replication and expansion of the solutions that were presented for achieving Better Nutrition, for example, updating, developing, and implementing food-based dietary guidelines, strengthening and implementing Codex Alimentarius standards, updating the Pacific Island Food Composition Tables, and other areas that need support or intervention.
Therefore, Dr Maukera stated learning from all the discussions and considering the Ministry of Health and Medical Services perspective. “We have the mandated legal enabling documents, for example, we have the 1) National NCD Multi-sectoral Policy & Strategy Plan 2) National Food Safety, Food Security and Nutrition Policy (NFSFSN) and other relevant legal instruments that provide for a good participation from different stakeholders and partners and hence we can leverage on these documents to build better Nutrition in addressing the SDG goals.
“Apart from legal documents, strengthening comprehensive data system to fill in the Data Gaps for strategic planning and decision making is also important. Increase local food crop production and support alternative innovative solutions to attract youths to be engaged in gardening. Moreover, promotes innovative value-added food processes that are healthy and nutritious and that are accessible and affordable for children. Strengthen community Engagement and Participation in producing their backyard gardening. We need to shift back into our traditional food and gardening but through innovative technology and ways that suit today’s interest”, said Dr Maukera.
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