Aimed at providing lawmakers with practical guidance on legislative processes that prioritize nutrition, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has published a new handbook for parliamentarians, titled Food Systems and Nutrition.

The online handbook was produced in collaboration with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the African Union Development Agency’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD). One in three people globally suffers from at least one form of malnutrition, and the economic loss attributable to poor nutrition is estimated at USD 3.5 trillion per year. Recent research on the worldwide burden of disease found that a suboptimal diet is responsible for more deaths than any other risk, including smoking. Every country in the world is affected by one or more forms of malnutrition. As a global multisectoral issue, there is no more critical issue to be addressed by the world’s parliaments. Scaling Up Nutrition News