The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve on the Expert Group on Environmental Sustainability for optimal intake of animal-source foods. This call for experts provides information about the expert group, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the selection process.
Background
Diet plays a crucial role in shaping the health and well-being of individuals and populations. Healthy diets help protect against malnutrition in all its forms, foodborne diseases, and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). WHO has supported Member States in promoting healthy, sustainable diets as a priority through various actions. These include providing scientific advice to Codex, issuing relevant nutritional guidelines, building capacity in countries, and supporting policy actions and activities that promote healthy diets.
Building off this work, WHO will develop a guideline on the optimal intakes of animal-source foods (meat, dairy, fish and plant foods) and diet patterns and a comprehensive implementation framework to support local adaptation of the guideline’s recommendations. To kick-start the process, WHO held the first meeting to initiate the guideline development in November 2024 with the participation of members of the guideline development group (GDG) and the Risk-Benefit Assessment Group (RBAG).
There is increasing global consensus that transforming food systems is essential not only for tackling malnutrition in all its forms and the burden of NCDs and foodborne diseases but also for ensuring environmental sustainability. The production of animal- and plant-source foods impacts the environment in different and significant ways, including the emission of greenhouse gases, deforestation, land degradation and desertification, water pollution and biodiversity loss. Therefore, integrating considerations on environmental sustainability into the development of guidance is crucial for both GDG and TAG. The GDG will develop a guideline, following the established WHO guideline development process, that provides evidence-informed recommendations on optimal intake of animal-source foods. The recommendations will take into account not only health effects but also environmental impact as well as other contextual factors such as feasibility, acceptability, resource implications and health equity. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Risk-Benefit Assessment will build upon the work initiated by the RBAG and complete the task to develop a comprehensive implementation framework. This framework will enable users to tailor and adapt GDG recommendations on optimal intake to a specific region/subregional or national context by considering not only biological and chemical hazards present in different food system scenarios but also environmental and socioeconomic aspects.
To support this effort, an expert group on environmental sustainability will be established under this call to provide input and advice to both the GDG and TAG, ensuring that environmental considerations are effectively integrated into their respective guidance – the guideline and the implementation framework.
Information for candidates
Qualifications
Successful candidates should meet most or all of the following qualifications:
- An advanced degree and demonstrated expertise in one or more subject matter areas as listed below
- Recent, relevant scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals
- Leadership, or invited participation, in national or international scientific bodies, committees and other expert advisory bodies pertinent to the scope of this work
- Ability to contribute to the preparation of scientific documents and to work in an international environment with scientists from various disciplines
- Good knowledge of the English language, both written and oral, is essential
Expert functions
The Expert group will perform the following functions:
- Review a summary of existing literature and initiatives evaluating the sustainability and environmental impact of animal- and plant-source foods
- Identify appropriate databases and modeling approaches for assessing sustainability and environmental impact
- Provide input on the scope of the sustainability and environmental aspects to be covered
- Assess the sustainability and environmental impact of animal- and plant-source foods using established methods
- For GDG – provide advice to help the GDG incorporate sustainability and environmental impact considerations as part of the assessment on the feasibility of implementing global recommendations. GDG will assess how the environmental factors may influence conclusions on optimal intake.
- For TAG – provide more detailed and localized advice to the TAG, considering different consumption scenarios, animal rearing and production systems. This will involve analyzing a selected number of countries to represent a diverse range of food safety and environmental contexts globally.
Subject matter expertise needed
The expert group will consist of a multidisciplinary group of experts, each with expertise in one or multiple relevant domains, as detailed below:
- Environmental science, with experience in assessing the environmental impacts of food production and consumption (e.g., Life Cycle Assessment of food systems, greenhouse gas emissions modeling in agriculture).
- Sustainability development and management (e.g., water and land use management related to livestock and crop production, biodiversity conservation in food production).
- Food systems and agriculture (e.g., sustainable farming practices including animal rearing practices, agroecology, regenerative farming, One Health approach, food supply chain sustainability)
- Human nutrition science (particularly in relation to animal-source and plant-source foods), food security and malnutrition (undernutrition and overnutrition)
- Risk-benefit assessment methodology, particularly as it applies to foods
- Socio-economic science and policy
Submitting an application
Interested parties should submit the following documents via the submission form at https://extranet.who.int/dataformv6/index.php/187565?lang=en
- Curriculum vitae, including
- detailed education background;
- relevant work experience; and
- list of peer-reviewed publications.
- Completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form
- PDF and Word versions of the DOI form, along with documents providing guidance on completing the DOI form can be downloaded from https://extranet.who.int/dataformv6/index.php/187565?lang=en
- Signed Confidentiality Undertaking
- This document can be downloaded from https://extranet.who.int/dataformv6/index.php/187565?lang=en
Process for selection of experts
- Each curriculum vitae will be reviewed to assess whether the applicant meets the qualifications and has relevant expertise in the subject matter areas listed above.
- Declaration of Interest forms will be reviewed. Any potential or perceived conflicts of interest disclosed in the Declaration of Interests form will be considered in the selection process, with input from the WHO Department of Compliance, Risk Management and Ethics and as needed. For more information can be consulted at https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest
- In addition to subject matter expertise, the selection of experts will also take into consideration diversity and complementarities of expertise, a balance of genders and balanced representation from WHO geographic regions including developing and developed countries.
- Representatives of commercial organizations may not serve as experts. They may be invited to attend part of the meeting as external resource persons, if required, but may not be present at the meeting when recommendations are being formulated.
Selected experts will be invited to contribute only in their individual capacity and will not represent their government, institution or other organizations. The names and brief biographies of selected experts will be published on the WHO website.
Completing this work is expected to take 2-3 years. Meetings will primarily be held virtually; however, some may take place in person. If a face-to-face meeting is organized, travel and per diem will be covered by WHO. No honoraria or other forms of remuneration will be provided. All meetings will be held in English only and all documents will be prepared and provided in English.
Documents must be submitted by 31 May 2025 (11:59 pm, CET, UTC/GMT +1 hour) to be eligible for consideration. Documents can be submitted through the online submission form at https://extranet.who.int/dataformv6/index.php/187565?lang=en.
Detailed instructions for submitting documents are provided in the online form.
Questions regarding the call for experts should be addressed to healthy_diet@who.int