Food and nutrition are basic requirements for the promotion and protection of health. Nutrition monitoring and dietary recommendations are included in the mission of the Unified Health System (SUS, in its Portuguese acronym), as established by the Organic Health Law no. 8,080 of 1990. This article presents and discusses the food and nutrition agenda of the SUS and its interface with Food and Nutrition Security, its benchmarks, progress and challenges. This essay was guided by biographical and documentary research and, above all, by the experiences and perceptions of the authors, who, at various times and in various contexts, have been and continue to be actors of Brazil's food and nutrition agenda. We emphasise the idea of the SUS, with its accomplishments and shortcomings, as a living system derived from the technical, ethical and political commitments of its administrators, workers, academics and society as a whole. Thus, we seek to contribute to the debate about the Brazilian path to the construction of a public social welfare system committed to health and adequate nutrition as a human rights.
Objective. To identify how countries have positioned themselves to fight against all forms of malnutrition. Methods. Qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study of the statements of 91 out of the 127 (71.7%) countries that issued declarations in the Second International Conference on Nutrition. Results. According to the analysis of the official statements from the Conference, countries still responded to nutrition issues in a traditional way. Food systems were part of the narrative and mentioned as part of the problem and solution, but little thought was given to their determinants. Conclusions. The Decade of Action on Nutrition is spurred on by the urgent need to coordinate global endeavors in the fight against malnutrition and could aggregate efforts in prioritizing actions to address the determinants rather than the biological outcomes of malnutrition–which requires commitments–; and strengthening the countries’ ability to implement robust regulatory measures. These measures could be empowered through efforts across different levels, making use of multilateral spaces, and through strengthening civil society participation, including developing better mechanisms for the recognition and control of conflicts of interest across different political spaces.
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