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Global Food and Nutrition Crisis
Priorities

Bridging the humanitarian-development divide

Bridging the humanitarian-development divide

Investing in nutrition remains a key element of building human capital and is essential to achieving the SDGs and fostering resilience against future health, conflict, climate and economic crises. The challenges are greatest in conflict-affected and fragile contexts, requiring a stronger link between humanitarian and development efforts to reduce humanitarian needs through inclusive risk-informed development programming.

The importance of a humanitarian focus

Including a humanitarian lens to actions in support of nutrition goals serves to:

  • Focus on national capacities for nutrition emergency preparedness and response.
  • Facilitate humanitarian-development collaboration in the field of nutrition, including through nutrition clusters.
  • Capture and share knowledge about nutrition crisis prevention and management that could also benefit other countries.
Action in support of countries

A core objective of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Strategy 3.0 (2021-2025) is to promote country leadership and responsibilities of government. In fragile and conflict-affected states, where the government may be unwilling or unable to lead, the strategy emphasizes that SUN partners work together in collaboration with humanitarian actors and include them in any multistakeholder platforms.

As part of this commitment to supporting good nutrition in humanitarian contexts, the SUN Movement established, in 2022, a new Convergence Hub, which specifically accommodates the needs of fragile and conflict-affected SUN Countries, in addition to those countries not served by SUN's regional hubs. 

Thirteen SUN Countries currently form the Convergence Hub. Ten of these are on the 2020 OECD list of fragile states: Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen. Additionally, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, and Tajikistan are included as they fall outside the areas covered by the four SUN Movement regional hubs.

The Convergence Hub is designed to:

  • Empower SUN Focal Points/Country Coordinators and multi-stakeholder platforms to prioritize focus and collaboration on nutrition issues within the humanitarian-development nexus, as reflected in SUN 3.0. Strategy.
  • Broker coordination in emergencies, including through the inclusion of national nutrition actors in humanitarian response plans.
  • Facilitate the strengthening of nutrition within the emergency preparedness / response capacity of these SUN Countries and benefit the nutrition sector in the long term.

Through this work, the SUN Movement brings value to the humanitarian space by: 

  • Supporting fragile SUN Countries to bridge the humanitarian-development nexus through involvement of all relevant actors in joint, integrated action related to nutrition, and to respond to identified gaps with capacity building.
  • Serving as a neutral broker with a focus on supporting SUN Countries to achieve their nutrition goals.
  • Promoting and leveraging the collective efforts of United Nations agencies, civil society organisations, donors, the private sector, academia, government/country representatives, youth – across such sectors as education, climate, food systems, health, social protection, socio economic development, and more, with a special focus on creating equity for women.
  • Connecting to international humanitarian actors and networks, through the hub’s strategic location in Geneva.