E/2021/25 E/CN.9/2021/6 reduce the risk of childhood obesity and of non-communicable diseases in adulthood, and meet their full potential; 13. Recognizes further the steep toll that COVID-19 has placed on national health systems, and calls upon Member States to maintain the continued functioning of health systems and achieve universal health coverage, including primary health care, in all relevant aspects necessary for an effective public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls upon Member States to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, and to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights; 14. Expresses concern that schoolchildren who normally rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition might not have access to regular school feeding and nutrition services due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, and calls upon Member States to mitigate the effects of school closures, including on child nutrition, which may affect girls and boys differently, especially adolescent girls, who, owing to negative social norms, are more likely to be expected to take on unpaid care and domestic work, limiting their access to remote learning and other education support programmes, and may put them at a greater risk of harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, as well as sexual and gender-based violence, child labour and trafficking in persons, and unintended pregnancies, which may lead to girls leaving school before the completion of their education and never returning to school as a result; 15. Calls upon Member States to actively support the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) and to take and strengthen action to prevent, monitor and address the disproportionate effects of the COVID -19 pandemic on older persons, paying particular attention to nutritional deficiencies and associated diseases in the design and implementation of health promotion and prevention programmes for older persons; 16. Encourages efforts at all levels to establish and strengthen social protection measures and programmes, including national safety nets, for the needy and those living in vulnerable situations and those facing discrimination, such as food and cash-for-work, direct benefit transfer, cash transfer and voucher programmes, school feeding programmes and mother-and-child nutrition programmes, and in this regard underlines the importance of increasing investment, capacity-building and systems development; 17. Urges Member States to take actions at the national and local levels that aim at enabling access to safe, sufficient, affordable, nutritious and diverse food and healthy diets for all, while complying with sanitary provisions and food safety standards, and urges all stakeholders to strengthen small-scale producer access to local, regional and national markets, and emphasizes in this regard the role of small scale and family farming in achieving food security and in providing livelihoods; 18. Calls upon Member States, the United Nations system, international and regional organizations and all sectors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and academia, to strengthen solidarity and multilateral cooperation, South-South and triangular cooperation to combat the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and to intensify the contributions of all actors to the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; 18/32 21-06093