Nutrition – the guest of honor at the UN General Assembly’s table

October 13, 2017 - Last update: February 10, 2023

From 12 to 25 Septemeber 2017, the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 72) convene at UN Headquarters in New York. Nutrition played an important role during the Assembly where the SUN Movement, along with its partners, called on attendees to take urgent and decisive action to increase investments in nutrition to save and improve lives around the world. During two intense weeks in New York, the SUN Movement organized and participated actively in several nutrition and food security related events held in the margins of the UNGA72.

SUN Lead Group meeting

On Monday 18 September 2017, took place the meeting of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Lead Group, in the margins of the 72^ndsession of the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting was held on the backdrop of significant challenges. After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger appears to be on the rise, affecting 11 percent of the global population. Food insecurity is affecting several SUN Movement countries and the destabilizing effects of conflict and climate associated shocks are leading to mass people movements and fragility. Coupled with growing urbanization and the drastically increasing double burden of undernutrition and obesity, the Lead Group meeting focused on how SUN Countries can practically address these issues. read more

Attended @SUN_Movement Lead Group today.We reviewed the nutrition situation globally. Good but not good enough to meet ambitious #sdg2030 pic.twitter.com/jXoenSsOc1

— Jakaya Kikwete (@jmkikwete) September 18, 2017

Goalkeepers for Nutrition Side-Event

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with 1,000 Days, Power of Nutrition, the SUN Movement, and the World Health Organization, hosted a Goalkeepers side event for nutrition on Thursday, Sept 21 at the Every Woman Every Child Hub tent at UNHQ: Goalkeepers for Nutrition: Inspiring Success. The Director General of WHO provided opening remarks that focused on the progress that is possible against malnutrition and stunting, saying that world leaders need to focus on nutrition to reach these goals. He also highlighted the High-Level nutrition event in Milan on November 4th as an opportunity for action. Martin Short, CEO of Power of Nutrition, highlighted the Power of Nutrition accelerator and their continued efforts to mobilize new and greater resources for high impact interventions from the private sector. Gerda Verburg, the SUN Movement Coordinator called for all stakeholders at country level to do more to address malnutrition. The event was moderated by Lucy Sullivan, 1,000 Days Executive Director. read more

50 to 75 per cent of nutrition goes 2 the brain. Good nutrition determines if a child will, or won’t be stunted. Physically, cognitively

Anthony Lake, Executive Director UNICEF and Chair SUN Movement Lead Group

Investing in the Early Years Side-Event

A High-level event was held at the EWEC Hub to discuss how investing early, even before birth, in young children’s development – through nutrition, health, education, sanitation, security, responsive caregiving and early learning – is one of the smartest interventions governments can make to address inequality, break the cycle of poverty, and improve outcomes later in life. The event marked the start of broad consultations to develop a nurturing care framework for early childhood development – including actions and results that countries can use to guide their investments in early childhood development. It also served as the official launch of UNICEF’s new report Early Moments Matter for Every Child, which details a six-point action agenda for governments and businesses. read more

Inspiring! We’re at #UNGA w/ special guests and the message is clear: Govts and businesses must commit to make #EarlyMomentsMatter #EWECisME pic.twitter.com/6gFaS9OrtG

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) September 21, 2017

.@GerdaVerburg We need to get #nutrition narrative right. We need 2 take this mssg & drive results in our own countries #InvestInNutrition pic.twitter.com/dOrSFPkll3

— Scaling Up Nutrition (@SUN_Movement) September 21, 2017

GFF Replenishment Launch Event

The Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child launched its replenishment on September 20^th, 2017, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. This first replenishment seeks to mobilize an additional USD2 billion to enable the GFF process to be expanded to a total of 50 countries during the next five years. At the GFF replenishment launch, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a USD 200 million pledge to the GFF Trust Fund. This new funding will help countries reach those who do not yet have access to quality services and accelerate progress on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition. read more

Global Citizen Week

Global Citizen put on a week of events during UNGA72, culminating in the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday. Of particular interest to the nutrition community, is an event which was cohosted with the SDG2 Hub – it gave an update on the Hub and featured a vibrant panel discussion on the theme “Good Food? – stories of how food is driving SDG2 and agenda 2030.” The event was moderated by Gerda Verburg and panelists included advocates committed to seeing the achievement of SDG2. The Global Citizen week, helped drive commitments to food and hunger, seven commitments were made. read more

Sneak peek of some of the guests we have speaking at our #GoodFood? event with @SDG2AdvocacyHub! Lets find solutions to ZERO HUNGER #SDG2 pic.twitter.com/cKnNH2cK89

— GlobalCitizenImpact (@GlblCtznImpact) September 20, 2017