Welcome to the SUN Movement – new SUN Government Focal Points and a new Donor Network Facilitator

As of August 2015, 51 of the 55 SUN Countries have nominated SUN Government Focal Points who are responsible for ensuring that the country’s efforts engage the whole of government and for coordinating external support. In some countries, the SUN Government Focal Point is supported by a facilitator from a development partner with technical expertise in nutrition. In several countries this role is being fulfilled through the UN REACH initiative. Each SUN Network has a Network Facilitator, and in some cases, a small team, who are established to facilitate the coordination of global and country level networks.

New SUN Government Focal Points for Botswana

Kekgonne Baipoledi, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture joins the SUN Movement as the interim SUN Government Focal Point and will be supported by Tidimalo Beauty Rakgantswana, Chief Monitoring & Evaluation Officer. Tidimalo shares with us, ‘Being a nutritionist working within the Ministry of Agriculture, I am convinced that we need to make all sectors, especially agriculture, more nutrition sensitive by contextualizing research into policy processes and the political economy to better characterize “enabling environments” for nutrition sensitive cross-sectional planning and programming, and shape them into a sustained manner’.

New SUN Government Focal Point for Ghana

Agyeman Badu Akosa, Professor at the National Development and Planning Commission under the Office of the Vice President, joins the SUN Movement as the SUN Government Focal Point for Ghana. In his appointment letter, Director of Plan Coordination in the National Development Planning Commission, Isaac Mensa-Bonsu, says that his experience as former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service and as an avid nutrition champion, brings tremendous political capital to Ghana’s Scaling Up Nutrition agenda.

New SUN Government Focal Point for Myanmar

Soe Lwin Nyein, Director General of the Department of Public Health in the Ministry of Health, joins the SUN Movement as the Sun Government Focal Point for Myanmar. He shares with us, “In my new appointment as the SUN Focal person for Myanmar, I will initiate and launch Sub national Integrated Plan for Nutrition Improvement (IPNI) coordination with SUN Network.”

New SUN Government Focal Point for Sri Lanka

Kingsly Fernando, Additional Secretary, Presidential Secretariat, joins the SUN Movement as the SUN Government Focal Point for Ghana. He shares with us, “I am looking forward to take my country towards a nourished nation with the national commitment and the international support, in my new appointment as SUN focal person for Sri Lanka.”

New SUN Donor Network Facilitator

Maren Lieberum, Policy Advisor in Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has joined the SUN Movement as the SUN Donor Network Facilitator. As of 1 August 2015, Lieberum replaced Kornelius Schiffer who has moved to Myanmar to continue his work on food and nutrition security.

Lieberum has a solid background in nutrition and rural development built on her experience in development cooperation from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation  and Development . She has previously served as a Nutrition Advisor focusing on Southern and Eastern Africa at the FAO HQ in Rome and in Southern Africa as well as  a Livelihood and Food Security Coordinator at Oxfam, covering seven countries in Southern Africa. In 2010, Lieberum joined GIZ to work on  multi-stakeholder coordination, policy development and donor coordination to strengthen HIV prevention and mitigation in South Africa. She looks forward to bringing her extensive country experience and her technical expertise to the SUN Movement working closely with all related stakeholders.