CAN DReaM, Creating Alliances Nationally to address Disease Related Malnutrition

Background
The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025 is a commitment by United Nations Member States to undertake 10 years of sustained and coherent implementation of policies, programmes and increased investments to eliminate malnutrition in all its forms, everywhere, leaving no one behind. 

The Decade of Action on Nutrition provides an enabling environment for all countries, regardless of their income, the nature of their malnutrition challenges or the characteristics of their food and health systems, to ensure that action is taken by governments and stakeholders to develop and implement inclusive policies aimed at ending all forms of malnutrition. See details here (https://www.un.org/nutrition/)

CAN DReaM, Creating Alliances Nationally to address Disease Related Malnutrition
is a CNS-CMTF initiative that builds on the United Nations Decade of Action commitment by advancing policy around Disease Related Malnutrition (DRM).

Initials steps taken by CNS-CMTF to set the stage for this initiative are as follows:

• May 5, 2022: CNS-CMTF held the first ever Food for Health Workshop: Nutrition as a Human Right – Disease Related Malnutrition, at the annual CNS Conference in Gatineau, Quebec. Chaired by Dr. Leah Gramlich and Dr. Diana Cardenas, the workshop attracted nutrition, implementation and policy expert speakers from Japan, France, Brazil, Australia, US, and Canada and more than 90 attendees.   
• Sept 1, 2022: on behalf of CMTF, CNS registered a commitment with UN’s Decade of Action on Nutrition to work on policy around DRM. See commitment with United Nations here
• Sept 7, 2022: CMTF’s Dr. Leah Gramlich represented CNS at the International declaration on the Human Right to Nutritional Care held at the 44th ESPEN congress on Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism in Vienna, on September 5 2022. 

CAN DReaM Goals
To help understand and advance the current policy landscape around DRM and over the next three years (2023-2025), CAN DReaM is committed to achieving the following five goals: 

GOAL 1 – Undertake a scoping review to  identify gaps in existing policies related to DRM
GOAL 2 – Create a national alliance and set the foundation for a national coordination mechanism for improved DRM policy 
GOAL 3 - Develop a policy brief on DRM
GOAL 4 – Facilitate coordination / engagement for policies and practices to address DRM to happen on a global scale
GOAL 5 – Advocate  for national and provincial health policy(ies) to address DRM
 

Global collaboration 
CMTF/CNS have been recognized as leaders in addressing malnutrition in Canada and globally. This CMTF/CNS formal commitment to the Decade of Action on Nutrition aligns well with the United Nation’s goals of:

• Aligning Health Systems Providing Universal Coverage of Essential Nutrition Actions
  Our commitment will strengthen and enable more resilient health systems and will support the development of policies that will ultimately improve nutrition for the health of Canadians and citizens globally. 
• Strengthening Governance and Accountability for Nutrition
  Our commitment will allow more attention towards governance and coordination of multisectoral mechanisms for food and nutrition and the establishment of policies and programs related to nutrition. 

Why CAN DReaM is needed

CNS and CMTF commit to the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition