The UAE’s National Nutrition Strategy 2017-2021 aims to improve the nutritional status of the UAE’s population throughout their life cycle and reduce the morbidity and mortality arising from diet-related risk factors of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The strategy aims to achieve the Global Nutrition Targets 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 by adopting the recommendations of the Second International Conference on Nutrition in theFramework for Action (PDF, 350 KB).

Objectives

The objectives of the UAE’s National Nutrition strategy 2017-2021 are to:

1. improve maternal, infant and young child’s nutrition by
   • achieving 50 per cent reduction of anemia in women of reproductive age
   • increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding of infants (from birth to 6 months of age) to minimum 50 per cent.

      

2. To reduce morbidity and mortality rates from non-communicable diseases by following healthy diet and engaging in physical activities by achieving

• 10 per cent relative reduction in the prevalence of insufficient physical activity
• 30 per cent relative reduction in mean population intake of salt
• reduction in the prevalence of obesity among children (from 5 to 17 years of age) by 2.4 per cent.

Pillars

The strategy is based on the following pillars:

1. sustainable food systems for healthy diets
2. aligned health systems providing universal coverage of essential nutrition actions
3. social protection and nutrition education
4. trade and investment for improved nutrition
5. enabling food and breastfeeding environments
6. review, strengthen and promote nutrition governance and accountability.