On 22^nd April 2024, a selected team from FANUS led by Dr Robert Fungo the President, joined by Prof Nnan Ngozi, Dr Patricia Ukegbu, Prof Francis Zotor, Prof Kingsley Pereko were joined by the Ghana Dietetics leaders of Dr Frank Hayford and Dr Tom Ndanu at FAO Africa Regional Office.

The IUNS president Dr Lynnette Nuefeld, made a presentation for the outcomes of the report by IUNS Task Force on Private Sector Engagement. The title of her presentation was “Towards a sustainable financing model for scientific nutrition meetings, including the role of the private sector”.

That IUNS-ICN 2025 recommended to use the 2021 Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) Global Index scores to identify private sponsors.

• The task force urges the organizers of IUNS-ICN 2025 to explore sponsorships from:
• producers and retailers of un- or minimally processed foods such as fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts (considering the above criteria for producers and retailers with mixed product portfolios),
• companies producing nutritional supplements and micronutrient premixes for supplements and fortification (allowing for other ratings of pharmaceutical companies, such as TBD),
• companies producing equipment essential to nutrition such as anthropometric and laboratory equipment,
• essential services to the field such as publishing houses and scientific journals,
• other non-food companies such as mobile technology companies, computer, and other equipment necessary for, but not directly related to the nutrition field.
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FANUS made input as follows:

1. Given the peculiarities of the African continent, FANUS can also diversify sponsorship outside the food sector to include:
   1. Banks including Afrexim Bank, African Development Bank etc
   1. Insurance companies
   1. Supermarket chains in Africa
   1. Companies with Research and Development units
   1. Airlines
   1. Civil societies
2. 2. It was observed that all the elements for nutrition in Africa are captured in the CODEX Alimentarius guidelines, however many African Food companies do not abide by the CODEX. Therefore, the CODEX Alimentarius is a pertinent aspect to consider when determining which African Food companies should be considered for funding of nutrition conferences/meetings.
3. There is a need to articulate the criteria for Africa in terms of Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling
4. (FOPNL) System, while waiting for approval of a common FOPNL in Africa. The Health Score rating (HSR) as stipulated in the IUNS Task Force report can be used to select companies to work with in terms of
5. FANUS needs to draw a plan to work with individual countries to develop country based Health Score rating (HSR) for future use when organizing nutrition meetings/conferences.
6. There is a need for FANUS to work with and motivate member country national nutrition societies in Africa to use Access To Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) Global Index screening score to generate African scores. The ATNI can get a sponsor to generate the score for member countries.
7. There is need for National Nutrition Societies to consider- Small African food companies that have the potential to fund meeting/conferences. The small companies can be considered if they fall in the criteria described by IUNS Task Force on Private sector engagement or by African criteria score adapted by FANUS.
8. The need for IUNS to first engage with WHO, and share the Task Force guidelines, in order to review the UN policy of private sector engagement for nutrition activities.