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Gabon
National Multisectoral Committee for Food and Nutritional Security
Gabon pairs a national multisectoral committee presided over from the Prime Minister's Office with a multi-stakeholder platform that convenes government and non-state actors around specific activities. The platform is being relaunched after a dormant period.
Institutional set-up and structure
The Committee was established in 2017, presided over by the Prime Minister's Office with the Minister for Agriculture as secretary and the Minister for Public Health as vice-secretary. Alongside it, a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder platform brings state and non-state actors together around proposed activities. The platform does not yet hold legal status, and work is underway to establish one. Active before the pandemic, it subsequently became dormant and is now being relaunched, including a review of which members remain active.
Mandate and decision-making power
The Committee steers and guides national food and nutrition security policy. Its tasks include approving the intersectoral food and nutrition security action plan, ensuring all sectors are involved in addressing food insecurity, developing a social communication plan for nutrition, and advocating for national mobilisation on food and nutrition. The platform's role is to foster collaboration between actors; without legal status it currently operates informally.
The Committee and platform are tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue; deciding on goals and strategic priorities
Policy formulation and decision making: coordinating policy development; developing policies for consideration by the relevant authorities
Who is involved
Government: the Prime Minister's Office; agriculture; public health; forestry, fisheries and environment; and other ministries proposing activities
Civil society and producers: cooperatives, producer organisations and civil society representatives
Private sector: economic operators and private sector representatives
Development partners: a United Nations agency convenes and funds the platform
How it works in practice
Members convene when a ministry proposes an activity, rather than to a fixed calendar
Proposed activities are notified to the convening partner, which circulates invitations to members
Implementation currently sits with each individual actor
Evaluation was not originally part of the platform's work; reporting obligations under the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement have introduced it
Work is underway to give the platform legal status
Opportunities for improvement
Establishing legal status would give the platform a formal mandate and the authority that follows from it
Moving towards domestic funding would strengthen financial sustainability
Restoring a regular meeting rhythm as part of the relaunch would rebuild continuity
Evidence base: key informant interviews and policy documents, 2026. Last updated: September 2026.
Strengths
Brings sectors that previously worked separately into contact, building on health and agriculture collaboration developing since 2013
Interdisciplinary exchange has widened participants' understanding of how infrastructure, local production and nutrition connect
Gives ministries a route to actors they do not routinely reach, including food producers
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