Technical assistance and strengthening capabilities
Since the beginning of the SUN Movement, SUN Countries paid close attention to the capabilities they need to effectively scale up nutrition. As they fight against malnutrition in their countries, they become aware of capacity gaps that hamper the implementation and scaling up of effective nutrition actions.
To bridge these gaps, SUN Countries turn to the SUN Global Support System for technical assistance.
Often, capacity needs are addressed by stakeholders already on the ground: United Nations agencies, civil society members, donors and the like. Sometimes, however, there might not be as many partners able to assist, or the in-country support might not be best suited to help with identified priorities.
This creates a need for additional assistance. To help SUN countries meet their needs, donors such as the European Commission have pledged their support and expertise to implement the SUN 3.0 strategy through financial assistance, policy development and capacity building where needed.
Technical assistance is provided by the SUN Movement in many core areas, including:
- Establishing a multistakeholder network
- Developing a national nutrition plan
- Costing a nutrition plan
- Setting up a private sector network
- Advancing youth and nutrition actions
- Mobilizing resources
- Conducting advocacy and communications
- Developing monitoring and evaluation systems
- Mapping nutrition stakeholders
- Digitizing nutrition data systems
The SUN Movement’s donors are supporting countries through the below programmes and technical assistance providers
The C4N programme is financed by the European Union (EUR 5 million) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (EUR 3 million) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
Its main aim is to enhance countries’ capacities, governance and accountability related to evidence-based and inclusive nutrition policy response and programming. To achieve this, C4N supports the European Commission, European Union delegations, governments and regional and global institutions and initiatives in prioritizing nutrition.
C4N support focuses on two main avenues:
- Public finance
- Food systems transformation
Technical assistance and capacity development support is delivered in close collaboration with SUN regional hubs in response to requests from SUN Countries identified during the Joint Annual Assessment process. Direct support requests also are submitted by SUN Government Focal Points, SUN multi stakeholder platforms and other nutrition stakeholders, or SUN regional hub coordinators, based on identified country needs.
This brief describes support being provided by the EU to support the SUN Movement Secretariat and to support SUN member countries in the implementation of the SUN 3.0 strategy.
EU4SUN, implemented by the Spanish Development entity FIIAPP and Expertise France (EUR 4 million), is one of the European Union’s primary contributions to the SUN Movement, working in countries throughout the world to scale up nutrition efforts.
The EU4SUN programme focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean (Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Peru) and Western Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal and Togo), with FIIAPP coordinating the work in Latin America and the Caribbean and Expertise France in West Africa.
When countries express a need, the EU4SUN programme provides support via technical assistance, peer-to-peer exchanges, policy dialogue and advocacy.
Both C4N and EU4SUN build on the success achieved by the Maximising the Quality of Scaling up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN+) programme and the Technical Assistance to Strengthen Capabilities (TASC) Project.
This brief describes support being provided by the EU to support the SUN Movement Secretariat and to support SUN member countries in the implementation of the SUN 3.0 strategy.
NIPN is an initiative of the European Commission to provide support to countries to strengthen their information systems for nutrition and to improve the analysis of data so as to better inform the strategic decisions they are faced with to prevent malnutrition and its consequences.
NIPN has been set up by the EU to help each country to develop a National Information Platform for Nutrition and to coordinate the technical assistance and capacity building required. The main role of this global support is to:
- Coordinate the initiative within and between countries
- Support countries to design and establish each NIPN
- Build capacity and provide technical assistance
- Link with SUN and other initiatives to ensure coherence
From 2020, global support is managed by Capacity for Nutrition – NIPN (C4N-NIPN). C4N is a multi-donor action between the European Commission (EC) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). C4N is part of the Knowledge for Nutrition Programme (K4N) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 66 SUN Countries. The platform aims to reshape the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.
FCDP is hosted by Results for Development (R4D), with partners Spark Health Africa and Health, Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), and the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP).
