Nutrition-responsive food legislation and legal frameworks

The ministry responsible for health, leading a multisectoral team in Zimbabwe, commits to review and establish nutrition-responsive food legislation and legal frameworks. The review of the legal frameworks will aim to improve nutrition labelling, raising consumer awareness for making healthier choices as well making the food environment work better for improved nutrition outcomes. Efforts will be made to facilitate better implementation of school nutrition guidelines, with a focus on improving the school food environment. Capacity-building with technical personnel across sectors, advocacy work with policymakers, consumer awareness and knowledge management, including documentation of success stories, will form part of the interventions. The interventions will also include strengthening of systems for monitoring and reporting on the Public Health (Breast-Milk Substitutes, Infant and Young Child Nutrition) Regulations Statutory Instrument 192 of 2024, which are regulations aimed at regulating the marketing and distribution of breast-milk substitutes. The Code monitoring exercises will be conducted and reports shared for improvement in the food systems and care-givers’ informed choices.