different tasks and to attribute specific responsibilities to different partners. And at the same time – and this is the essence of a multi-actor approach – the roadmap to success asks us to create platforms which encourage dialogue and stimulate innovative energies that derive from this exchange among different actors at equal levels.
The actors are manifold. Among them are producers, processors, and trading companies acting individually or as a group, each of them looking at the issue from their point of view and following their own interests. There are consumers, too, also acting either as individuals or as a group. There are scientists from different academic sectors. And there are extension and field services, teachers, social and medical services.
All these actors must be committed to a continued, coherent, and sustainable action on local, regional, country, and/or global level. Of course, public partners are also involved as well as states, regions and their administrations, supranational and international organizations. However, they are not just another part of this big puzzle of actors involved. Their task is different. It is up to them to lay down the basic legal rules, aiming at a level playing field for the fruitful cooperation of all actors.
It is up to countries and regions to establish the rules to comply with and which solve conflicts of interest, establish standards for cooperation and conduct, ensure the transparency of processes, as well as equal treatment and representation and look for the appropriate discussion of the various different aspects. It is up to the public partners to stimulate and moderate the trans-sectorial and multi-disciplinary action to improve the nutritional standard of people in a given area.
This does not mean that the public partners should dominate the process in a top-down manner. Public partners will never be suited to do so, as they will never know better and already ex ante what needs to be done. Public partners need input from other actors. They need to understand and they need to get the large picture, empowering them to play this stimulating, moderating, and facilitating role with the necessary authority.
Empowering and Protecting People
However, the task of public partners goes beyond that, as the process has a goal. An individual person takes a responsible decision regarding the kind of nutrition that is appropriate for his or her needs. So we are talking about empowering and protecting people [7]. Only when people know more about their needs can they decide which quality of nutrition suits them. People must also be protected against misleading advertising and baseless product disclosures. Only then will they be less dependent on claims and will rely more on their knowledge and their capacity to take decisions. Only then can they assess the effects of their nutritional habits on the food chain as well as on the environment, health, and social structures.
Therefore, public partners need to ensure legislation, where needed, especially on labelling to ensure transparency and to avoid that consumers are being misled. They need to ensure that nutrition education and nutrition information [8, 9] start in the family, continue in childcare facilities at school, and accompany an individual throughout his/her lifetime [10] in order to help take the “right” decision under different circumstances. Eventually and depending on the specific situation in a country or region, preventive actions or emergency measures in order to fight malnutrition or micronutrient deficiencies and to improve or stabilize the nutritional status of people or specific vulnerable groups, such as small children and their mothers, adolescent girls, elderly people, minority groups, may also be necessary. The role of public partners in this aspect is to steer the process, set priorities, take the final decisions, establish the framework of action, and supervise the implementation of steps to be taken by different actors.
How Do We Interpret the Role of Public Partners in Germany?
Adequate nutrition is an issue of high political importance in Germany. There are growing concerns about the production conditions, leading to a strong public interest in information about the composition of foodstuffs. There is a strong demand for clear indications at the point of sale and/or on the packaging [11–13]. Simultaneously, changing lifestyle habits lead to an increasing level of overweight and obesity while, on the other hand, concerns also grow regarding insufficient nutrition especially among elderly people and specific social groups [14–22].
At the national level, since 2008, the Federal Government and the Federal States are active to improve the quality of food in schools and kindergartens, to establish quality standards for food in community catering and to establish networks to better reach specific groups of the population. As a national strategy for better nutrition and more physical activity, these activities are jointly led by the Federal Ministries for Agriculture and Food and for Health. It is implemented in close cooperation with the Federal States and local authorities, who are responsible in first hand. It broadly takes on board research institutions and works as a multi-stakeholder initiative, linking nutrition, health, education, public information, and agriculture [23–26].
In 2017, the Federal Minister for Agriculture and Food, Christian Schmidt, has significantly pushed forward these activities by establishing the Federal Centre for Nutrition as a branch of the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food [27]. The Centre will not only continue the networking activities of the previously mentioned national strategy for better nutrition and more physical activity. It will expand and intensify them, for example regarding the quality of food in schools and kindergartens, the culture of having a meal together, as well as regards improved nutrition for mothers and their children, during pregnancy and the first 2 years after a child’s birth [28]. These are core objectives of Germany’s nutrition policy.
Furthermore, the Centre supports the Scientific Committee on the Composition of Foodstuffs in its task to ensure transparent consumer information, and it deals with the reduction of food losses along the value chain from the farm up to the final consumer. Communication is the Centre’s second pillar. Extensive information about nutritional issues and influence on the environment where people eat and make food choices will help empower consumers to make the appropriate choice about nutrition and to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
A comprehensive strategy will be set up to reach the general public directly, and via multipliers and through all appropriate media under the headline “From Knowledge to Action.” Together with the new Federal Institute for Research on Child Nutrition, these activities illustrate that Germany indeed places a high priority on improved nutrition quality. Federal Minister, Schmidt, did so in view of Germany´s obligation to reach the SDGs and the Commitments deriving from the Rome Declaration by the International Conference on Nutrition-2 in 2014 [29, 30]. Consequently, Germany will not focus on activities at the national level only.
On the contrary, we are deeply convinced that we can achieve our goals in Germany only in an intense exchange and cooperation with sister institutions in other countries. Nutrition is an issue for all of us. Malnutrition is a global issue, we may be differently affected, but the task remains the same. Consequently, Germany has given specific attention to nutritional issues already in the past in its support of the work of FAO and WHO. Scaling up nutrition is also a characterizing element of Germany’s development activities.