Nutrition Champions unite for a stronger voice in West Africa

SUN Civil Society Network / Cara Flowers

On 15th June 2015, Civil Society Alliances from Benin, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Chad, Cameroon and Liberia, came together in Dakar, Senegal to for a three day Advocacy Training followed immediately by a one day Regional Workshop. The event was organised by Action Contre La Faim (ACF), the SUN Civil Society Network and supported by UNICEF with additional facilitation support from RESULTS and WASH Advocates. Additional participants from the UN Network and Academia were invited to participate in the Regional Workshop.

The workshop took a comprehensive approach to joint advocacy planning and included power mapping, analysis and extraction of key targets and the materials needed to reach all audiences. Discussions about multi-sectoral nutrition policies helped advocates to understand the power of evidence based advocacy and participants identified a key area for further development was in communication.

Each Civil Society Alliance had the opportunity to showcase how their advocacy efforts are aligned behind national plans and how they are building successful working relationships with SUN Government Focal Points and their multi-stakeholder platforms. Participation and presentations by advocates of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) helped to highlight the value of multi-sectoral advocacy and gave strong examples of how nutrition advocacy objectives can be integrated into other relevant sectors.

Learn more about the SUN Civil Society Network: SUNCSN