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Bangladesh – The Civil Society Alliance for Scaling Up Nutrition, Bangladesh (CSA for SUN, BD) celebrated World Breastfeeding Week with the Bangladesh Government and organized a divisional seminar on 1 August 2013.

The launching of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement in Sierra Leone in 2012 underscores the importance of nutrition in the first 1000 days. The formation of the Civil Society Platform (CSP) in Sierra Leone is part of the SUN initiative to promote nutrition actions and coordinate nutrition interventions among civil society organizations (CSOs) in Sierra Leone. As part of its support to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), the CSP in Sierra Leone supported community sensitization activities, the national launch of WBW as well as interactive radio discussions.

The 2013 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) theme, ‘Breastfeeding Support: Close to Mothers’, highlighted the importance of breastfeeding peer counselling. This year, SUN Civil Society Alliances (CSAs) from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda supported coordinated WBW actions and activities.

As part of the preparations leading up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), a Preparatory Technical Meeting is to be held at FAO Headquarters from 13 to 15 November 2013.

To bring issues highlighted in the new Lancet Nutriti on Series to the fore, UNICEF partnered with Save the Children International to hold a one day roundtable and launch of the 2013 Lancet Series on 29 August 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. The round table brought together partners, key decision makers and stakeholders at the state and national level who can make decisions that will ensure the scale up of cost effective nutrition interventions.

On 1st August 2013, the Ghana Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for Scaling up Nutrition held its official launch in Accra. The coalition’s coordinator, Nana Ayim Poakwah, pledged the commitment of GHACCSSUN to mobilise the technical capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to complement government’s efforts in the development of a costed nutrition plan that would end the scourge of under-nutrition in Ghana. Just weeks later, GHACCSUN organized a workshop to equip journalists with knowledge and skills on nutrition reporting.

The Zambia Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition Alliance (CSO-SUN Alliance) organized two radio programs in collaboration with World Vision’s Child Health Now Campaign and the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC). These programmes aimed to highlight the importance of breastfeeding and establishing the environments to enable this essential practice – as major elements to addressing malnutrition.

Read the July 2013 Newsletter featuring news on progress made for scaling up nutrition.

USD 4.2 million has been awarded to date through the SUN Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) to National Civil Society Alliances in Bangladesh, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger and Uganda and the Global Civil Society Network Secretariat. The SUN MPTF, established in March 2012 by participating UN agencies and contributing donor partners, is designed to ensure catalytic grants reach governments, UN agencies, civil society and other stakeholders to enable development and implementation of national efforts to scale up nutrition.

The proposal seeks to establish a solid CSO platform; to ensure this space is used a basis for common messaging and national awareness raising campaign to support the SUN movement and the 1000 days campaign eventually leading to; nutrition is recognized as both a health and a developmental issue secured through the adoption and implementation of a strong National Nutrition Policy supported through appropriate budgetary allocation by the government and other stakeholders.

Civil society organizations in Nepal have been awareded funding to implement a project that seeks to influence the development and implementation of an adequate and effective policy and programmatic response that will lead to improved nutrition outcomes.