The 2018 SUN Movement Joint-Assessment kicks off

Between 15 April and 31 May, the 60 Countries and three Indian States that drive the SUN Movement are undertaking the 2018 SUN Joint-Assessment (JAA). It is the fifth year that SUN Countries have been invited to undertake the multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral process that allows for collaboration, discussion, and consensus-building.

© UNICEF/UNI173764/Altaf Qadri

Last year, and as shown in the 2017 Progress Report, a record-breaking 52 countries – up from 45 in 2016 – examined their scaling up nutrition efforts, by bringing together their nutrition communities for the yearly SUN Movement Joint-Assessment. The JAA exercise provides invaluable insight into country-level action and is one of the Movement’s most unique features and tools, to share progress and challenges, and set a course for the future. In addition to the 52 SUN Countries who undertook the Joint-Assessment in 2017, two SUN Movement newcomers (Papua New Guinea and Gabon) undertook baseline studies that paint a picture of the elements in place for ensuring a well-nourished future for families, societies and nations.

The JAA is the primary source of information for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system, which measures the extent to which the SUN Movement is achieving results and impact. The overarching aim is to evaluate progress seen in the country over the past year, but also to:

1. Promote the coming together of teams of in-country stakeholders in a participatory process, to align their vision of the status of institutional transformations for scaling up nutrition in each SUN Country, including progress over the past year;
2. Give a snapshot of challenges and obstacles faced;
3. Set common priorities for 2018-2019, and appreciate the support available for achieving them;
4. Provide concrete inputs to the decision-making process of the global SUN system and its support system, including the SUN Movement Executive Committee, Lead Group, Networks, Experts, Coordinator and Secretariat.

The Joint-Assessment is organised around four processes in pursuit of the SUN Movement strategic objectives, as per the SUN Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016–2020):

• Process one: Bringing people together in the same space for action
• Process two: Ensuring a coherent policy and legal framework
• Process three: Aligning actions around common results
• Process four: Tracking finance and mobilising resources

Over the past four years, SUN Countries have organised face-to-face meetings with all stakeholders to use the exercise as a moment to reflect, align efforts and set priorities. During these meetings, SUN Countries have discussed issues of governance, strategy, capacity building, and teamwork – areas that are often neglected throughout the year when there is pressure to discuss programmes or more immediate topics.