UPDATE: The Scaling UpNutrition (SUN) Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016-2020)

The second SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016-2020)¹ builds on the collective commitment generated by the 56 countries that are driving the SUN Movement as they seek to end malnutrition in all its forms. The political will has never been stronger; however, moving to impact at scale and ensuring sustainable results for all is now at the heart of the SUN Movement’s strengthened approach.

The new Strategy and Roadmap calls for greater emphasis on implementation and accountability and has the following four objectives;

1. Expand and sustain the enabling political environment;
2. Prioritise and institutionalise effective actions that contribute to good nutrition;
3. Implement effective actions aligned with national common results frameworks;
4. Effectively use, and significantly increase, financial resources for nutrition.

In support of these objectives, the SUN Roadmap focuses on strengthening country capabilities through:

Improving policy and budget cycle management in order to:

• Have nutrition plans in place, endorsed at the executive and ministerial levels, with defined national nutrition targets and costed actions that guide aligned implementation and resource-allocation;
• Regularly and transparently track budget allocations against the plans and demonstrate better use of finance data through improved advocacy, planning and impact;
• Increase resources for nutrition from both domestic and external sources;
• Analyse and use good quality data for decision-making, accountability and advocacy and through all of the above;
• Implement agreed actions at scale and demonstrate the impact of these actions.

Undertaking social mobilisation, advocacy and communication in order to:

• Keep building and sustaining political, institutional and financial commitment at all levels;

• Maintain advocacy and communication which support the realisation of national priorities;

• Share country lessons and progress, stimulating country-to-country knowledge-sharing.

Build the capacity of individuals and institutions in order to:

• Ensure high-performing, multi-stakeholder platforms, with effective coordination at subnational levels;
• Enable all key stakeholders to make measurable contributions to scaling up nutrition;
• Have aligned political commitment, policy and legislation, in support of nutrition;
• Prevent and manage conflicts of interest as they emerge, promoting effective collaboration.

Strengthen the equity drivers of nutrition, including roles of women and girls.

Equity lies at the heart of the nutrition challenge and the Roadmap will support a shift from rhetoric to action. It will help support SUN Countries to prioritise:

• equitable improvement in the nutrition status of all people, ensuring that no one is left behind;
• policies that reduce nutritional inequities, especially among women and girls and eliminate discriminatory laws and practices.

At the core of these services are the SUN Movement’s Principles of Engagement, which guide the myriad of actors, all working to scale up nutrition.

Process to date

At their meeting in September 2015, the SUN Movement Lead Group tasked the new SUN Movement Executive Committee to oversee the development of the Roadmap to ground the high-level ambitions of the Strategy in practical actions that will have greater impact at country level.

Through a consultative process (kick-started at the SUN Movement Global Gathering in 2015), working groups were established to set ambitions for the coming five years. Facilitated by the SUN Movement Secretariat, with stakeholders drawn from the membership of SUN Countries, SUN Networks (UN, Civil Society, Donor and Business) along with academic and technical partners, the Roadmap was reviewed.

The final Strategy and Roadmap will be endorsed and launched by the incoming SUN Movement Coordinator, Ms. Gerda Verburg and the Lead Group, in July 2016. It will continue to be a country-led, multi-stakeholder and multi-sector collective force for nutrition.

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References

¹ This update was kindly written by the SUN Movement Secretariat.