SUN Movement Statement of Support for the African Union's 2022 Year of Nutrition for Africa

SUN Movement Statement of Support for the African Union’s 2022 Year of Nutrition for Africa:

The leadership of African Union and African Heads of State and Government, in designating 2022 as Year of Nutrition for Africa, is strongly applauded by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. The year’s theme has been announced as:

Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthening Agro-Food Systems, Health and Social Protection Systems for the Acceleration of Human, Social and Economic Capital Development.

This bold initiative prioritizes high-level action to address malnutrition across the African continent and will drive increased political momentum for nutrition nationally and regionally in Africa. It builds on the outcomes of the Year of Action on Nutrition 2021, and the Nutrition for Growth and UN Food System summits, to invigorate the global community to step up and match this action.

Year of Nutrition for Africa 2022 reaffirms the commitment of African countries to advance their nutrition goals, and this must now be followed with a clear investment from domestic budgets and alignment of investors behind these country-defined priorities.

While much progress has been made in Africa to tackle malnutrition in all its forms, the Global Nutrition Report indicates that malnutrition rates across Africa remain unacceptably high with 13.7% of infants having a low birth weight and 30.7% of children aged 0 to 5 years suffering from stunting. Women are particularly at risk across Africa, with more than 40% of women of reproductive age suffering from anaemia.

With the decision to make 2022 Year of Nutrition for Africa, governments and the African Union have shown strong leadership to prioritize and scale up nutrition. It is no longer enough to simply fight hunger. It must go beyond counting calories, to nourishing populations, as good nutrition is essential for health and well-being across Africa and the whole world. Ensuring equitable access to healthy diets can avert food crises, prevent new cases of malnutrition, and lead to long-term development, political stability, and resilience. Malnourished and stunted children mean stunted economies for the next decades.

Ending malnutrition requires transformation across the food, health, education, and social protection systems to achieve sustainable change – for this reason it requires a multisectoral and multistakeholder approach. Additionally, special attention is needed in fragile and conflict-affected settings, where the most vulnerable face multiple barriers to accessing good nutrition. This requires new ways of working, including action across the humanitarian-development nexus and a focus on building resilience.

The Scaling Up Nutrition Movement commits to supporting the country-led efforts of African SUN Countries in meeting the nutrition targets they have set for themselves by leveraging its strong multisectoral and multistakeholder networks globally and on the ground in each country.

We also commit to supporting African SUN Countries to implement the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes to protect and promote good nutrition of infants and young children alongside other efforts to address malnutrition in all its forms.

All stakeholders must come together to act urgently to protect children’s future, by improving nutrition, through food systems, health and social protection systems and by investing in climate change in order to drive economic prosperity.

The SUN Movement call on all players to mobilise financial and technical support towards achievement of national and regional nutrition goals across Africa – and to join us in promoting Year of Nutrition for Africa 2022.

Learn more about Year of Nutrition for Africa 2022

About the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement

The Scaling Up Nutrition Movement is a country-led and country-driven network of stakeholders working to support the 65 SUN Countries and 4 Indian States to develop and achieve their nutrition targets. It is founded on a multistakeholder and multisectoral approach that harnesses the broad capacities of key players working to bring healthy nutrition to everyone, everywhere. It is facilitated by the SUN Movement Secretariat and four SUN Networks – the SUN Civil Society Network, SUN Business Network, SUN Donor Network and UN Nutrition – representing over 3,000 organisations, 900 businesses, 16 UN agencies, and leading public and private sector donors.