A/71/282 I. Introduction 1. Malnutrition, in all its forms, has become a universal challenge. Today, nearly 800 million people remain chronically undernourished, more than 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and another 600 million are obese. These three forms of malnutrition coexist within most countries, communities and even individuals. Ensuring the right to adequate food extends far beyond merely ensuring the minimum requirements needed for survival and includes access to food that is nutritionally adequate. Increasingly, the right to adequate nutrition is being recognized as an essential element of the right to food and the right to health. 2. The underlying causes of malnutrition are complex and multidimensional, and access to nutritious food is often a key indicator of socioeconomic inequality. Women and children are particularly sensitive to malnutrition, while poverty, gender inequality and lack of access to adequate sanitation, health and education services are aggravating factors. Today’s food systems, which are dominated by industrial production and processing, as well as trade liberalization and aggressive marketing strategies, are fostering unhealthy eating habits and creating a dependence on highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. Unequal access to and control over resources, as well as unsustainable production and consumption patterns, which lead to environmental degradation and climate change, also contribute to the malfunctioning of food systems. 1 3. Recognizing the growing threat of malnutrition in all its forms and its negative impacts on economic development, universal health and efforts to reduce inequality, the international community has taken major initiatives to ensure global policy action. The World Health Organization (WHO) global targets to improve maternal, infant and young child nutrition by 2025, the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-2020 and the political commitments made at the Second International Conference on Nutrition, in 2014, to ensure the right of everyone to safe, sufficient and nutritious food are encouraging responses. It is now also recognized that nutrition plays a crucial role in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 4. Yet the world is not on track to reach these global targets. 2 It is time to translate commitment into action. The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, proclaimed in April 2016, presents a unique opportunity to ensure a coherent, inclusive and transparent response to malnutrition, embedded within human rights. Applying a human rights-based approach to nutrition policy acknowledges rights holders and the duty of Governments to refrain from actions that negatively affect the right to nutrition and to implement strategies that tackle malnutrition’s root causes. Recognizing that private sector involvement in responding to malnutrition cannot be ignored, it is necessary to establish suitable safeguards to prevent negative corporate influences on nutrition governance. States should be supported in their efforts to regulate and hold the food industry accountable, to encourage behavioural changes in the population and to improve access to nutritious food through social protection. Finally, it is crucial to recognize __________________ 1 2 16-13441 The Special Rapporteur intends to dedicate a future report to the effects of climate change on nutrition. International Food Policy Research Institute, Global Nutrition Report 2016: From Promise to Impact — Ending Malnutrition by 2030 (Washington, D.C., 2016), p. xviii. 3/24