Quarterly Update: UN Network for SUN Q1 2017

This Quarterly Update shares the progress made by the UN Network for SUN from January to March 2017 in accelerating the scale-up of efforts to improve nutrition.

UN Network for SUN (UNN) communications, materials, meetings & events

• A face-to-face meeting was convened with the UNN/REACH Steering Committee on 29^th March at WFP Headquarters in Rome.
• A regional nutrition meeting was held on 24-25^th January in Bangkok. The first day of the meeting was devoted to UNN colleagues while the second day engaged a wider group of stakeholders in the region, who discussed urban nutrition and food security and the causes of anaemia in Asia.
• A series of calls were held in late January and early February with UNN colleagues to guide the implementation of the UN Network strategy. UNN representatives from 48 countries actively participated in the calls in addition to colleagues at the regional and global level.
• The UNN Reporting Exercise has been conducted after being piloted in Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan and Sudan at the end of 2016. The participation rate was 81%.
• The newly released Checklist of criteria to guide the formulation of ‘good’ quality nutrition plans, is now available in French and Spanish. The UNN/REACH Secretariat, jointly with the SUN Movement Secretariat, facilitated the development of the checklist, liaising with a small working group of experts.
• The UNN/REACH Secretariat is working with UN partner agencies to define a protocol for Technical Assistance (TA) provided by the UN, within the broader context of the SUN Movement. As part of this exercise, UN nutrition expertise in functional and technical areas is being mapped, with a view to creating a repository of resources available through the UN agencies. These efforts will help the Network better respond to country requests for TA.
• The UN Nutrition Inventory has been completed in Bangladesh, Chad, DRC and Mali. In addition, the new web-based version of the tool will be launched in the second quarter and will be demoed in a webinar organized by the UNN/REACH Secretariat.
• The REACH Annual Report, highlighting its main achievements in 2016, will soon be posted on the REACH website.
• Preparations are underway to update and restructure the UNN/REACH website to improve knowledge sharing and complementarity with other existing KS platforms (SCN, ENN, SUN).
• An article about how REACH is supporting SUN processes in Burkina Faso was recently published in Issue 7 of ENN’s Nutrition Exchange (Arabic, English, French and Spanish). In addition, an ENN podcast (in French) is also available, featuring interviews with Burkina Faso’s SUN Government focal point, REACH International Facilitator and the UNN/REACH Deputy Global Coordinator.
• The UN Network for SUN Quarterly Update for the 4^th quarter (2016) is available.

Developments at the UN Agencies and other UN nutrition bodies

• FAO released the manual, Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems in practice: options for intervention, as the latest addition to its Toolkit on Nutrition-sensitive Agriculture and Food Systems.
• New FAO/INFOODS Global Food Composition Databases are now available for Fish and Shellfish (Version 1.0, uFiSh1.0) and for Pulses (version 1.0, uPulses1.0).
• IAEA has circulated its 5^th Newsletter of the Nutritional and Health-Related Environmental Studies Section, which highlights activities undertaken in the second half of 2016.
• The free e-learning course on Programming for Infant Young Child Feeding, developed by UNICEF and Cornell University, has been updated. The course now consists of 11 Units and 3 case studies.
• A new resource page is available for the joint UNICEF-SPRING evaluation of a Community-based IYCF Counselling Package. The package is comprised of briefs, baseline evaluation results, training materials, evaluation tools, success stories, and other related content.
• UNICEF’s East and Pacific Asia Regional Office has released a Nutrition – WASH Toolkit, which summarizes the latest evidence on the importance of Nutrition and WASH sectors working together and identifies practical steps for strengthening joint WASH and Nutrition actions.
• A joint UNICEF/Global Nutrition Cluster review on Supporting Humanitarian Cluster/Sector Coordination Transition is available, highlighting findings about strategic issues for transitioning cluster coordination structures into national coordination platforms.
• Endorsed in February, WFP’s new Nutrition Policy (2017-2021) emphasizes its continued commitment to nutrition in emergencies and role in the management of acute malnutrition. It also expands WFP’s reach in nutrition-sensitive programming and addressing all forms of malnutrition.
• WFP, in close collaboration with UNICEF and with technical support from IFPRI, UC Davis, and Epicentre, has developed the new Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) tool, which is informing strategic planning and the Zero Hunger Reviews. The FNG analysis has been conducted in Ghana, Madagascar and El Salvador, and is currently underway in Cambodia, Guatemala, Laos, Pakistan and Tanzania.  These analyses bring together secondary information and linear programming to support national strategies for addressing barriers to adequate nutrient intake.
• WFP’s former Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, articulated 5 Steps towards Achieving Zero Hunger in the lead up to the recent World Economic Forum.
• WFP developed a video on rice fortification, highlighting how this strategy can support efforts to combat micronutrient deficiencies in Asia.
• WHO is in the final stages of developing a strategic framework that outlines its Ambition and Action in Nutrition from 2016 to 2025, which coincides with the period of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and the target date for achieving the six WHA global nutrition targets. The document identifies the following three priority areas as being core to WHO’s work in Nutrition: leadership; guidance; and monitoring.
• In 2016, WHO issued Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive pregnancy Experience, including nutrition recommendations that should be part of a context-specific antenatal care package.
• WHO has issued an updated guideline on the “Use of multiple micronutrient powders for point-of-use fortification of foods consumed by infants and young children aged 6–23 months and children aged 2–12 years.”
• The UNSCN’s Discussion Paper on Global Governance for Nutrition and the Role of the UNSCN is now available.

 Other international meetings & events with considerable UN participation

• On 10^th February, the CFS Open Ended Working Group on Nutrition gathered to discuss the work programme for the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, the forthcoming intersessional events on nutrition (May) and the structure of the lesson sharing event, which will be held at the 44th CFS Session (October) in Rome.
• An online consultation on the Nutrition Decade’s work programme was held through the Food Security and Nutrition Forum in early 2017. Actors were invited to share their views on how to strengthen the first draft of this work programme.
• On 27th February, FAO hosted an informal consultation on the Nutrition Decade work programme. It has since held briefings with Member States on the Decade of Action for Nutrition.
• A side-event on ‘Women and labour: A nutritional perspective’ for the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women was held on 20^th March in New York. Co-hosted by Argentina, Indonesia and Sri Lanka in collaboration with FAO, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO and the World Bank, the event highlighted linkages between women’s malnutrition and economic development.
• WHO and UNICEF jointly convened a meeting on Strengthening and Implementing the Nutrition Monitoring and Surveillance: Lessons from the Field in Geneva on 23^rd-24^th The meeting focused on building capacities for data collection to improve the quality and availability of nutrition data in countries. During the same week, a meeting was held with the joint WHO-UNICEF Technical Expert Advisory group on nutrition Monitoring (TEAM) as part of efforts to help monitor the WHA global nutrition targets and other indicators of the Global Nutrition Monitoring Framework at country-level.
• The Global Nutrition Cluster held its annual Partners Meeting in Beirut, Lebanon on 29-30^th
• A UNSCN face-to-face meeting took place on 30^th March, which was hosted by IFAD’S Rome office. Knowledge management and emerging issues were among the topics discussed.