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Malawi: Civil Society Awarded $428,000 to Strengthen Scaling Up Nutrition
This funding will support a project which proposes the setting up of a strong, sustainable, influential and prominent Civil Society Organisations’ (CSO) Alliance who will pay a significant role in supporting the promotion and implementation of nutrition interventions for the enhancement of the nutrition agenda for Malawi.
August 7, 2013 - Last update: February 10, 2023
During the last five years, Malawi has placed nutrition high on the development agenda, and was the first country to launch the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative and the 1000 Special Days movement. The Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in the office of President and Cabinet (OPC), which is spearheading the SUN initiative in Malawi, has outlined a “reach out” strategy which aims to empower individuals and organizations with technical, advocacy and implementation skills that will translate into improved knowledge, action, and practice during the first 1000 days of a child’s life. The Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS has worked to strengthen multi-sectoral networks encompassing government and civil society. National-level sectoral nutrition strategies have contributed to improvements in maternal and child mortality and nutrition indicators over the past decade.
This funding will support a project which proposes the setting up of a strong, sustainable, influential and prominent Civil Society Organisations’ (CSO) Alliance who will pay a significant role in supporting the promotion and implementation of nutrition interventions for the enhancement of the nutrition agenda for Malawi. The CSO Alliance will work closely with key stakeholders in nutrition at all levels which include; Government Ministries, Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) – Department of Nutrition and HIV/AIDS (DNHA), implementing NGOs, UN Partners, Private Sector, Academia and Zonal, district and community structures to ensure that a focus on nutrition is included in their program planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Overall, the project will ensure there is organised participation of civil society and community based organisations in policy, planning and budgeting dialogue on nutrition issues at all levels. The project will support capacity building of CSOs and community based organisations in the implementation of the National Nutrition Education and Communication Strategy (NECS).
Learn more about MPTF funding in Malawi.
About the SUN MPTF
The SUN MPTF, established in March 2012 by participating UN agencies and contributing donor partners, is designed to ensure catalytic grants reach governments, UN agencies, civil society and other stakeholders to enable development and implementation of national efforts to scale up nutrition. Not meant to replace other steams of funding, the MPTF was established to enable or initiate action on scaling up nutrition at the country-level when other funding support is not available.
In addition to providing financial support for initiating SUN actions at the country level – including establishment and strengthening of multi-stakeholder platforms, stock-taking, hosting national SUN launches and facilitating sharing of experiences at regional and global meetings – an initial funding priority of the MPTF is to support development and operation of civil society platforms in SUN countries.
