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United Nations Environment Programme
  • Scope & Objectives
  • Voices of Recipe of Change
  • Sustainable Ramadan
  • IDAFLW

The Recipe of Change campaign was created under the auspices of the regional food waste framework implemented by UN Environment Programme, Regional Office for West Asia.

The main purpose of the campaign is to maximize visibility on the rampant global food waste problem. It strives to encourage the public to reduce their food waste and to help countries in their efforts to achieving responsible consumption and production SDG12 and its target number 3 that aims to halve food waste by 2030.

In order to create real behavioral change, the talk on food waste must be regular and long-term. The campaign has been spread over many months, as to maximize its impact and reach.

The campaign also focuses on reducing, reusing and recycling:

Reduce

Measure portion sizes to minimize potential waste and/or write a shopping list and avoid bulk promotions.

Reuse

Limit food waste by using take away options and donating to food banks. Donate all leftover resources that weren’t used before they become perishable. Schedule a weekly ‘Use It Up’ Day or ‘Use It Up’ meal to make the most of leftover ingredients.

Recycle

Compost any remaining food waste and ask one’s local government about food waste collection

Following the success of phase one that focused mainly on households, UNEP ROWA will launch phase two in September 2022 with main targets being the Ho.Re.Ca sector along with university and school canteens/cafeterias.

Animations

A series of animations, raising awareness on the issue of food waste.

1. Food Waste Explained - Arabic - English

2. Reducing Food Waste - Arabic - English

3. Reduce Restaurants Food Waste - Arabic - English 

4. What can private actors in the food supply chain do - English

5. Stuffed? Save it for later - Arabic - English 

6. Opinion of Chef Wed on Food Waste - Watch

7. Responsibilities of Chef Wed - Watch

Videos

A series of videos of the partner top chefs, discussing subjects on food waste within the West Asia region were produced and shared.

  1. Launching of Recipe of Change Campaign, featuring UNEP Representative and Regional Director for West Asia, Mr. Sami Dimassi
  2. Food Waste in the Region: an awareness video featuring UNEP Representative and Regional Director Mr. Sami Dimassi, Chef Maroun Chedid, Chef Leyla Fathallah, Chef Ali Ghazawi and Chef Yasser Jnedi raise awareness on the issue of food waste in the region 
  3. Zero-Waste Recipe using bread, onion and meat leftovers featuring Chef Youssef Akiki
  4. Food waste in restaurants
  5. Reduce food Waste at home featuring actor George Khalaf
  6. Food waste impacts food security , featuring actress Stephanie Atallah
  7. Food Waste and its impact on the planet featuring Chefs Mussabeh Al Kaabi, Leyla Fathallah, Youssef Akiki, Chef Ali Ghzawi, Chef Issa Al Balushi, and Chef Tala Bashmi

This campaign is supported by GO4SDGs

Supported by

https://youtube.com/shorts/jioDsJYHTGs?feature=share

 

Our social media channels:

- Instagram

- Twitter

Our latest campaign:

- Sustainable Ramadan 2023 

- IDAFLW 2023 (Media Kit)

The campaign has been spread over many months with the main purpose to maximize awareness on the rampant global food waste problem and create real behavioural change.Chefs and influencers from the West Asia region have been approached to increase the impact of the campaign. Those include (from upper left to right) Actress Stephanie Atala (Lebanon), Chefs Issa Al Balushi (Oman), Youssef Akiki (Lebanon), Ali Ghzawi (Jordan), Leyla Fathallah (Lebanon), Musabbeh Alkaabi (United Arab Emirates), Actor George Khalaf (Lebanon), Joe Barza (Lebanon), Tala Bashmi (Bahrain), Yasser El Jnedi (Syria), Maroun Chedid (Lebanon), and Wed Saleh (Saudi Arabia).

Voices of Recipe of Change Advocate on Food Waste for West Asia 2023-2026

Biography

Chef Leyla Fathallah 

Chef Leyla, (Lebanon) is a prominent chef in the Middle Eastern region, who started as a chef and host on the cooking channel Fatafeat TV in 2009, and developed since then a strong presence in the Middle Eastern food scene.

Based in Dubai, Chef Leyla is an influencer on social media platforms and TV shows with a solid 1.4 million followers base on Instagram and 2 million on Facebook. Throughout her career, Chef Leyla gave cooking classes at the Lebanese International university in Beirut and has been featured in publications and workshops. She has been the brand ambassador for the most prominent brands in the Arab region including Maggi, Pyrex, Luminarc, Sensodyne, and Shehrazad Rice.

In February 2023, she was appointed UNEP advocate for food waste in West Asia region, for three years. Prior to that, in 2021, she was the UNEP West Asia voice on the topic of food waste through the Recipe of Change campaign. She conveyed the message on food waste through contributing to awareness raising campaigns, participating in talk shows and sharing zero waste recipe ideas and tips on her social media platforms.

Finally, Chef Leyla is an inspiration for the young women of the region as she represents leadership, commitment, and integrity pushing women to pursue their goals and careers and be active members of society. With her growing network and influence in the industry, she has the power to promote UNEP’s work in reducing and eliminating food loss and waste.

 

Sustainable Ramadan 2024 

As part of phase 2 of the Recipe of Change (ROC) campaign, the United Nations Environment Program - Regional Office of West Asia (UNEP ROWA) will be developing a media campaign under the title of Sustainable Ramadan to create behavioral change and raise awareness on food waste under the slogan “Half the Food Waste, Double the Blessings”.

According to the State of Food Waste in West Asia report “During Ramadan, 30-50 per cent of the food prepared in Saudi Arabia is thrown away; these shares reach 25 per cent in Qatar and 40 per cent in the United Arab Emirates.”

Following the success of Sustainable Ramadan 2023 and notably the reduction of food waste by 61% across three hotels in Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh; this year’s campaign will continue to scale up the work from last year to bring in more stakeholders and raise further awareness to keep the momentum on food waste going focusing on the adverse impacts of food waste on the environment, on food security notably in a region that relies heavily on imports, and on climate change.  

The campaign will be rolled out through the various social media accounts (Instagram ,Twitter, Youtube,) and website of UNEP (mainly ROWA, but also UNEP global channels). In addition, the campaign toolkit (including social media cards, posts, animated content, and flyers…) will be shared with relevant stakeholders to mark their participation in this campaign by showcasing the package on their social media channels. These would be various NGOs, governmental bodies, academia, and the private sector notably through the Ho.Re.Ca industry. UN agencies will be engaged through the UNCT and RC framework, to ensure coordination and act as one UN.

The campaign will feature our advocate Chef Leyla Fathallah who will assist UNEP ROWA in promoting the material to reach the maximum audience possible as she currently has over 1.4 million followers on Instagram and 2 million on Facebook. For this year, a series of episodes featuring chefs and foodies in the region will be developed in an interview style with Chef Leyla focusing on the work they are doing to reduce food waste and developing zero waste recipes. The campaign will be launched on the first day of Ramadan and will run on a daily basis throughout the Holy month.

This year, 32 Hilton hotels located between UAE, KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkiye, and Kuala Lumpur have joined the campaign. Also other academia, NGOs, and municipalities across West Asia have joined the campaign.

Information kit to assist all partners in raising awareness 

  • Animated content and reels.
  • Social Media cards with statistics, key messages, and facts based on last year’s campaign.
  • Toolkit for hotels.
  • Informative videos with Chef Leyla and a series of videos hosting chefs and foodies showcasing zero waste recipes.

 

Ramadan 2023 

The campaign was launched on the first day of Ramadan 2023 and was run on a daily basis throughout the Holy month. The campaign featured UNEP's advocate on Food waste in West Asia Chef Leyla Fathallah who promoted the material 

Informative videos with Chef Leyla:

  • Introduction to campaign - Watch
  • Launching of the Campaign - Watch
  • Toast and Sour Cream - Watch
  • Hints about sustainable habits - Watch
  • Less waste for more Food Security - Watch
  • How to reduce food waste at the household level - Watch
  • Mloukhiye Recipe - Watch
  • Chips Recipe - Watch
  • The Art of Reusing Leftovers - Watch
  • Sustainable lifestyle during Ramadan - Watch
  • Why be sustainable during Ramadan
  • Save Store Share (1) - Watch
  • Save Store Share (2) - Watch
  • Call to action - Watch
  • Conclusion / Closing of campaign - Watch

IDAFLW 2023

In celebration of the IDAFLW, UNEP is launching the #EveryPlateCounts  #لكل_طبق_حكاية  challenge on the 15th of September.

In addition, a social media kit has been developed to share messaging and raise awareness starting with the challenge launching on the 15thand leading up to the IDAFLW on September 29th 2023.

Through the Recipe of Change campaign, UNEP West Asia is inviting the youth to join the Food Waste Advocate Chef Leyla Fathallah in the challenge by following these simple steps:

  1. Save a meal by creating a dish from ingredients that would’ve been thrown away.
  2. Take a picture, post it and tag @unepwestasia using #FLWDay, #EveryPlateCounts #RecipeofChange #GO4SDGS
  3. Tag 3 friends and nominate them to do the same on their social media pages.

 

IDAFLW 2023

 

IDAFLW 2022

About this year's event:

For the 3rd consecutive year, UNEP marks the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). On that day, UNEP on a global level advances a call to action for consumers, private and public organizations to collaborate to reduce food loss and waste.

Prioritizing food loss and waste reduction activities is essential to improve the efficiency of natural resources and decrease the adverse impacts of food loss and waste on climate, food security and nutrition.

This year’s theme Stop Food Waste! For the People! For the Planet! highlights the adverse impact of food waste on people’s health and the environment.

https://youtu.be/ZXIAaqaZ5zY

To take action at a regional level, UNEP West Asia organized various activation activities with different partners across the region:

Kingdom of Bahrain, week of 24th of September

Awareness raising activity at the Arab Gulf University (AGU). With the university, UNEP ROWA will implement a competition to feature student research on the topic, and the canteen will be serving a meal prepared in a zero-waste method in addition to encouraging students to take their leftovers, reduce their portions, and compost organic waste.

Lebanon 28-30 September 

Lebanese Scouts Federation

Awareness raising activities with the Lebanese Scouts Federation, targeting the youth, main drivers of change.

Lebanese American University

A panel discussion entitled "Combating Food Waste for Improved Food Security in Lebanon".  An activation at the canteens in both campuses (Beirut and Byblos) along with the university medical center of St. Johns in Jounieh. For three days, the campaign will be running in the three locations and the canteen will be serving meals prepared in a zero-waste method in addition to encouraging students to take their leftovers, reduce their portions, and compost organic waste.

Link to video 

Nusaned 

Under the SwitchMed II activities in Lebanon UNEP ROWA has collaborated with Nusaned (Lebanese NGO) to promote Circular Economy and Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) practices in Lebanon, greening restaurants, preventing and reducing plastics and food waste through capacity building, awareness raising and collection activities to divert the waste from landfill. Participating restaurants will showcase the Recipe of Change campaign, raise awareness to staff and customers on the topic, promote take away for leftovers, and develop a zero-waste recipe for the entire week of 25th September 2022.

Link to video

United Arab Emirates (UAE), 29 September - 2 October 

An activation marking the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste, organized by UN Environment Programme Regional Office for West Asia and Goumbook, in collaboration with Dubai Sustainable Tourism will target the hospitality industry, with focus on domestic tourists. Aiming to engage with UAE hotels following its launch on Sept 29th, the campaign will run for 4 days until Oct 2nd, 2022.

Link to video

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 29 September 

To mark the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office facilitated the collaboration between UNEP ROWA with Marriot hotel in Riyadh. The collaboration resulted in the employment of an awareness raising campaign as part of the hotel’s “core value to serve 360” with focus on Reduction at the Source from guest and associates through awareness raising, reduction of portion size, and take away process.

  • Separate & measure all pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste to analyse data
  • Donation of surplus to local food banks
  • Animal Feed for food that is not conform for donation

Link to video

Partners

Food Production
Did you know?
Each year one third of global food production is lost or wasted.

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