SUN Rises at 67th UN General Assembly

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers opening remarks at the High-Level Meeting on SUN

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the importance of nutrition and the critical work of the SUN Movement in his opening address to the General Assembly. In a side meeting on 25 September, the Secretary General met U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss urgent world matters and agreed on the importance of global challenges on food and nutrition, women’s and children’s health and education.

The SUN High-Level Event was held on 27 September. This 2nd annual event was hosted by the UN Secretary-General, together with Mr. Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, Canada and Dr. Anthony Lake, Chairman of the SUN Lead Group and Executive Director of UNICEF. The event marked the release of the 2012 SUN Progress Report and highlighted the growing global commitment to scaling up nutrition. Photos of the event are now available, and the webcast of the meeting can be viewed here.

The SUN Lead Group Meeting was held before the High-Level Event. Twenty of the 27 high-level leaders participated and approved the new SUN Strategy 2012-2015, which is accompanied by the revised 2012 SUN Road Map. Discussion focused on governance and accountability, prioritization of effective actions and resource mobilization.

Two SUN Government Focal Point Meetings were held on 26 and 28 September. The first meeting focused on indicators of progress and nutrition outcomes, and agreed on a consistent system for tracking progress. The second meeting involved roundtable discussions in which Focal Points shared experiences, highlighted challenges and identified areas in which they required support from the SUN Networks.

The SUN Donor Network met on 26 September. The meeting brought together senior officials from bilateral and multilateral development partners to discuss how they can further align their efforts in order to achieve, track and measure results in SUN countries.

The SUN UN Network held two separate meetings on 27 and 28 September with SUN Focal Points to discuss obstacles for scale up at national level and to identify how the UN system and other international agencies can facilitate and support actions in SUN countries. The meeting also featured a discussion on approaches to nutrition sensitive development.

Supporters of the SUN Civil Society Network had a breakfast meeting on 28 September on the role of civil society in the SUN Movement. At the event, co-hosted by Concern Worldwide and 1,000 Days, high-level leaders and advocates discussed opportunities and challenges for enhancing the engagement and commitment of leading civil society organizations to collectively scale up nutrition on the basis of true accountability. A full agenda from the meeting is now available.

World Vision and Save the Children UK hosted a panel discussion on 27 September on undernutrition and child survival. The Nutrition Barometer was introduced, providing a snapshot of national government commitments to address children’s nutrition, against progress in 36 countries with high numbers of undernourished children.

Supporters of the SUN Business Network met on 25 September to discuss how the global community can create more confidence in partnerships through the development of stronger working relationships between governments, civil society and the private sector around practical actions.

Sight and Life with DSM held a reception to celebrate 100 years of vitamins on 26 September. Leaders from government, business, civil society, donor, UN and research sectors gathered to recognize the essential role micronutrients play in battling malnutrition and advancing global health and sustainable economic development. View the Sight and Life Facebook album to see photos of the event.

Introduction to SUN – UNGA, September 2012
Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) video presented at the United Nations General Assembly

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View the 2012 SUN UNGA video on YouTube