Prime Minister of the Comoros endorses the decision to map nutrition stakeholders and actions

* Originally published by the UN Network for SUN

@ UN Resident Coordinator’s Office/Cheikh Mohamed El Hafed Dehah

Chad and the Comoros are working to conduct a sweeping nutrition mapping exercise that compiles data on intervention coverage across stakeholders, which is otherwise lacking. Government officials and UN colleagues in both countries recognize that it is difficult to have substantive discussions about scale-up without knowing the current levels of coverage. The mapping will enable local nutrition authorities to spearhead discussions and responses in order to scale-up multi-sectoral nutrition actions in-country.

The Prime Minister of the Comoros endorsed the decision to map nutrition stakeholders and actions following the recent visit of Chad’s International REACH Facilitator and an Analyst from the UN Network Secretariat. The mission was requested by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator and was an opportunity to share experiences from Chad’s ongoing mapping exercise within the context of greater measures to enhance nutrition governance, supported by UNN-REACH. These include efforts to set-up and strengthen the capacity of nutrition coordination mechanisms in Chad − both at the national and regional levels − which will benefit and use the mapping data first-hand.

The visit was timely, as the Comoros is in the process of establishing a new nutrition governance structure. An executive decree was submitted that same week to establish the National Nutrition Council (Conseil National de la Nutrition et de l’Alimentation) under the President’s Office.

Four government ministries in the Comoros (Agriculture, Education, Health and Planning) have committed to engage in the mapping, while the UN Country Team is already working to mobilize funding, through its UN Network. The Civil Society Network has also expressed interest in actively engaging in the exercise and has included this activity in its 2019 workplan.

While the mapping is due to commence in June 2019 after the election period, the UN Network Secretariat is assisting country actors with the preparation of Terms of Reference and a budget to ensure a prompt launch. It is also connecting the country civil society platform (Plateforme Riziki) with the SUN Civil Society Network’s global secretariat, and has pledged to train the platform on the tool to help make it a strong actor in advancing the nutrition agenda in the Comoros.