CATIE and SESAN actively participate in the 6th Global Meeting of the NiPN global initiative

• The event focused on the evaluation and development of sustainability plans for national food and nutrition security information platforms in a constantly evolving policy context.

From October 22 to 25, the 6th Global Meeting of the global initiative of the National Nutrition Information Platforms (NiPN) was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This event focused on the evaluation and development of the initiative's sustainability plans in a constantly evolving political context. Current progress and challenges were also discussed, as well as possibilities for advancing our common mission.

CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) was represented by officials from the National Nutrition Information Platform Project (PiNN), including Eduardo Say, coordinator, Gabriela Ogaldes, nutrition specialist, and Ana Lucía Vásquez, international management specialist; as well as Julio López, CATIE representative in Guatemala. Martha Salazar, technical sub-secretary, participated on behalf of the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security of Guatemala (SESAN).

There was also participation from government representatives, members of NiPN platforms, implementing partners, donors, EC-NIS (Strengthening National Nutrition Information Systems) partners and other nutrition data initiatives. In addition to Guatemala, the meeting was attended by representatives from Ethiopia, Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Lao PDR, Zambia and Kenya.

Among the topics addressed were sustainability challenges, investments in nutrition information systems, integration of gender perspectives in platform activities, food systems transformation, sustainability and the policy environment, as well as artificial intelligence and the link to nutrition information systems and platforms.

The PiNN project coordinator, Eduardo Say, presented a case study on the automation of the nutrition situation room, a support provided to the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance that consisted of a computer development that contributes to saving time in the organization of data and will improve data analysis and decision-making at the municipal level.

The PiNN project is implemented by CATIE in Guatemala, in coordination with SESAN and the European Union Delegation in Guatemala; it also has the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ). This global initiative is implemented by CATIE, GIZ and UNICEF.

As part of this global event, PiNN/CATIE and SESAN held technical and experience-sharing meetings with delegations from Ethiopia, Niger and Laos to discuss issues of common interest and exchange experiences on strategic issues related to the subnational approach, sustainability and data administration and management.

According to Julio López, CATIE representative in Guatemala, the event made it possible to identify and share experiences on complementary issues among the countries, as well as at the level of the global initiative; it also made it possible to define short and medium-term actions, such as communication strategies to improve advocacy at different levels and ensure the issue of food and nutritional security, both at the technical and political levels and, strategically, to ensure financial sustainability to increase and sustain actions in the countries.