PROMOTION OF HEALTHY DIETS THROUGH LEGAL EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS, USING HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED, PARTICIPATORY, AND MULTI-SECTORAL APPROACH
CEFROHT is currently implementing the global recap supported by IDLO titled “Promote healthy diets through legal empowerment and social accountability mechanisms using a human rights based participatory multisectoral approach”.
The project intends to use social accountability mechanisms to strengthen multi stakeholder partnership and coordination by establishing a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder body to advocate for healthy diet reforms and hold duty bearers accountable through different advocacy initiatives.
In an attempt to achieve this, an Advocacy Working Group (AWG) was formed consisting of members from: government, CSOs, media, academia and public. This combination is to carry on advocacy as a team with a mission of contributing to an enabling environment supportive of regulatory and fiscal measures that promotes healthy diets through using the same voice to speak to duty bearers for purposes of creating policy and enact regulations for better diets.
Project goal: To contribute to an enabling environment supportive of regulatory and fiscal measures that promote healthy diets by working across sectors and engaging communities. Outcome(s)
Specific impact level: Strengthened human rights-based advocacy initiatives and community education to support regulatory and fiscal measures that promote healthy diets
Outcome: The overall outcome of the Sub-Project is to strengthen human rights-based advocacy initiatives to support regulatory and fiscal measures that promote healthy diets. To do so, the Sub-Project adopts a two-pronged approach: i) On the one hand, the project will use social accountability mechanisms to strengthen multi-stakeholder partnership and coordination by establishing a multi-sectorial and multi-stakeholder body with members from; government, CSOs, media, academia and public involving government, CSOs, academia and communities, to advocate for healthy diets reforms and hold duty bearers accountable through different advocacy initiatives; ii) On the other hand, the Sub-Project will use legal empowerment to through awareness creation and capacity building for CSOs and communities to be able to undertake social accountability initiatives
Output(s): 1. Strengthened multi-sectoral and multistakeholder partnerships between government, CSOs, academia and communities to advocate for reforms that promote healthy diets through social accountability.
2. Increased levels of awareness of CSOs, media practitioners, academics and the community on legal and policy options and strategies to promote healthy diets through legal empowerment.
BENEFICIARIES
Policy makers
Under the Sub-Project, policy makers will be engaged to work on nutrition labeling measures to promote healthy diets. As duty bearers, they will be engaged to promote physical activity through programs that encourage individuals and community initiatives. Duty bearers will also be engaged to incorporate human rights principles in their strategies and plan. They will also be engaged to streamline and support the fiscal and regulatory measures on nutrition labelling, marketing restrictions, SSB taxes in endeavor to promote healthier diets.
Media practitioners
These will be trained on how to report and do advocacy on regulatory and fiscal measures on healthy diets, including the human rights-based approach and social accountability mechanism that are applicable.
CSOs
CSOs will be trained in legal empowerment and social accountability in their approaches towards food and nutrition interventions. They will be empowered with social accountability tools to advocate for legislative reforms that promote healthy diets. There also exist no body that coordinate CSOs to promote healthy diets in Uganda which shall be formed under this sub-project. The project envisages to establish a multi-stakeholder body that will coordinate CSOs to promote healthy diets and it will also build their capacity in regulatory and fiscal measures that promote healthy diets, including the human rights-based approach and social accountability mechanisms.
ULS-FNC
Even though these legal practitioners work towards promotion of food justice, they lack adequate knowledge on legal and regulatory measures that promote healthy diets, and this limits their legal interventions on the same. Therefore, the project will educate ULS-FNC in legal and regulatory measures in relation to healthy diets and physical activity & its legal implications.
Children
Food and beverage marketing is an increasingly sophisticated industry, and children are among its prime targets (WHO 2006). Children are at a great risk of NCDs. According to WHO, the rate of children getting NCDs in developing countries is more than 30% higher than that of developed countries. For the broader population, project interventions altogether are directed towards promotion of nutrition labeling, physical activity as well as fiscal regulations like the SSB taxes.
