Westminster hosts impactful policy roundtables on tackling global hunger and malnutrition

The first roundtable was co-chaired by Westminster’s Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Bonfield and Margaret Miller, President of the World Public Health and Nutrition Association (WPHNA), and overseen by Dr Regina Keith, Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health and Nutrition and Technical Lead for the World Public Health Nutrition (WPHN) Congress.

It was attended by nutrition experts, local government officials and a Member of Parliament, Ian Byrne MP, and was convened one year in advance of the WPHN Congress which Westminster will be hosting in June 2024.

The Congress will bring together health and nutrition experts, researchers, policy makers and organisations from across the world to assess the impact of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025, which is a commitment by UN member states to undertake ten years of sustained and coherent implementation of policies, programmes and increased investments to eliminate malnutrition in all its forms.

At the June roundtable, experts and policymakers discussed Hunger and the Health System in line with achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger) and 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and the barriers to achieving the Global Nutrition Goals.

Speaking about the roundtable and the wider work that is being done in the lead up to the Congress, Dr Regina Keith said: “What a fantastic planning week with colleagues from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe for our 2024 World Public Health Nutrition Congress. The clock is ticking - our theme is Questioning the Solutions: exploring if the Decade of Nutrition has progressed the right to food at all. A call for abstracts will be sent out soon and the themes for the Congress agreed. It’s very exciting.”

The second roundtable took place on 18 September and aimed to be another in-depth discussion about how to build momentum ahead of the Congress and plans for influencing the policy recommendations to emerge from it.

Register for the World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2024 and submit an abstract before the deadline on 20 November on the event’s website.

Find out more about the University of Westminster’s commitment to Sustainable Development.

Find out more about Nutrition and Public Health courses at the University of Westminster.