Last week on the occasion of the Committee on World Food Security and to mark the launch of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, FAO released a new eLearning module, Improving Nutrition through Agriculture and Food Systems, designed to assist professionals from any fields related to agriculture and food systems that are involved in designing and implementing nutrition-sensitive policies and investments.

The module is available in the FAO e-learning page at the link: www.fao.org/elearning/#/elc/en/course/NFS

This module was developed by FAO’s Nutrition and Food Systems Division and Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division, in collaboration with the World Bank and European Union, and with technical inputs from many partners. 

It is a resource in support of the UN Decade of Action for Nutrition and the implementation of the ICN2 Framework of Action, which advocates for mainstreaming nutrition in food and agriculture policies and investments.

The module uses a scenario-based and experiential learning approach to illustrate the linkages between agriculture, food systems and nutrition. It provides a series of examples of nutrition-sensitive policies and interventions and gives an overview of global and regional initiatives and commitments related to nutrition on which learners can build to integrate nutrition in their work.

Other e-learning modules related to nutrition-sensitive planning developed by FAO include teh following:  

• Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods: Basic concepts www.fao.org/elearning/#/elc/en/course/NFSLBC - short course on the basics of nutrition
• Agreeing on causes of malnutrition for joint action www.fao.org/elearning/#/elc/en/course/ACMJA  - a key resource to improve the understanding of the multi-sectoral causes of malnutrition and support integrated nutrition planning.
• A new e-learning module, From nutrition situation analysis to nutrition-sensitive project design, monitoring and evaluation is being developed and expected to be released during 2017.